Two House committees said Thursday they are investigating the hack of federal networks involving SolarWinds software.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee, announced the investigation in a letter written with their fellow Democrats to the heads of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence.
“Our Committees are seeking information related to the apparent, widespread compromise of multiple federal government, critical infrastructure, and private sector information technology networks,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. “While investigations and technical forensic analyses are still ongoing, based on preliminary reporting, it is evident that this latest cyber intrusion could have potentially [devastating] consequences for U.S. national security.”
The congressional inquiry comes on the heels of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s alert on Thursday saying it discovered hackers used multiple ways to breach critical networks beyond the SolarWinds hack.
SolarWinds is a Texas-based software company that counts many government agencies as customers and the hack of its software is widely suspected to be attributable to Russia.
CISA, the FBI, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence are leading the federal government’s effort to understand what the hackers accomplished and how to stop them now.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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