Russia's FireEye Hack Is a Statement—but Not a Catastrophe
FireEye has built its reputation on defending high-stakes clients from hackers. Today, the cybersecurity firm acknowledged that it had itself been the victim of a breach—and that the attackers made off with some of its offensive tools. It's a startling admission but almost certainly not as devastating as it may first sound.
Like many cybersecurity companies, FireEye uses its “red team” tools to mimic those used in real attacks and look for vulnerabilities in its customers’ digital systems the way real adversaries would. The firm is able to update and refine its methods because it encounters and studies real nation-state and criminal hacking tools while assisting customers with incident response. But that’s still a far cry from investing to develop a novel offensive arsenal—and not nearly as scary as the tools at the disposal of, say, the National Security Agency.
FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia said in a blog post today that the company has been dealing with the fallout of “an attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities” and has engaged the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with industry peers like Microsoft. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that hackers from a group known as APT 29 or Cozy Bear, attributed to Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, carried out the breach.
