When Joe Biden is sworn as president of the United States on January 20, he will inherit a long list of major problems from the outgoing administration — and one of them, according to security expert Tom Bossert, is a massive security breach.
Bossert, who heads the security firm Trinity Cyber, served as a homeland security adviser under President Donald Trump. He was pushed out of the government when Trump hired John Bolton as national security adviser.
In an op-ed published by the New York Times, Bossert details the disturbing outlines of a sprawling cybersecurity breach of the federal government that was recently uncovered. Hackers were able to penetrate a private company known as SolarWinds, which happens to sell software to many different parts of the federal government. With this breach, the hackers were able to potentially gain unprecedented access to U.S. government systems thought to be secure. The extent of the espionage coup is only now being assessed, and the breach could leave vulnerabilities in the system that could persist indefinitely. Sizing up and undoing the damage is a daunting undertaking. Continue reading.