Hackers breached US government networks, including Treasury and Commerce departments

Monday is shaping out not to be a bad day for tech companies and government agencies alike. Earlier today, we told you about the Google outage which affected millions of Google’s YouTube, Gmail, and Drive users worldwide.

Then just a few minutes ago, we wrote about the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) after the agency issued an Emergency Directive calling on all federal civilian agencies to review their networks for indicators of compromise and disconnect or power down SolarWinds Orion products immediately.

Now, there is another news that Russian government hackers broke into Microsoft’s Office 365 and monitored staff emails used by employees at US treasury and commerce departments. This sophisticated hacking group backed by a foreign government stole information from the U.S. Treasury Department and a U.S. agency responsible for deciding policy around the internet and telecommunications, according to a report from Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter.

The hackers, who are known as Cozy Bear or APT29, are reportedly the same group that hacked the White House and State Department under the Obama administration. For months, hackers have been able to monitor email traffic within the departments. At this point, there is no knowledge of how many other federal agencies may have compromised. The FBI is now investigating the hack, according to the Washington Post.

“The United States government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation,” said National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot.