Unknown hackers targeted the US Census Bureau network
Unknown hackers targeted the network of the US Census Bureau sometime last year according to reports by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its first Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA) report released earlier last week. The DHS believes that the threat actors will possibly interfere with the upcoming 2020 US Presidential election-related infrastructure; as well as possibly compromise the US 2020 Census.
The US Census Bureau is the largest US federal government statistical agency whose responsibility is dedicated to providing current facts and figures about America’s people, places, and economy. The data collated by the Census Bureau helps the US Government allocate over $675 billion in federal funds to tribal, local, and state governments yearly.
According to the HTA report released by the DHS; “Advanced persistent threat or other malicious cyber actors likely will target election-related infrastructure as the 2020 Presidential election approaches, focusing on voter PII, municipal or state networks, or state election officials directly.”
The reports also made mention of multiple attempts by the hackers to gain access to systems on the US Census network. Accordingly, “Unidentified cyber actors have engaged in suspicious communications with the U.S. Census public-facing network over at least the last year, including conducting vulnerability scans and attempting unauthorized access,” continues the report. “Cyber activity directed at the U.S. Census could include attempts to gain illicit access to census-gathered bulk data; to alter census registration data; to compromise the census infrastructure supply chain or conducting denial-of-service attacks.”
This is not the first time the US Census Bureau is coming under similar attacks; in 2015, hacks and DDoS attacks were credited to the Anonymous collective while 2018 saw similar attacks linked to Russian attackers.
The HTA reports further stated that; “Federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, as well as the private sector, will experience an array of cyber-enabled threats designed to access sensitive information, steal money, and force ransom payments,”
The report also pointed out plausible vested interests by state-affiliated actors linked to China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea who will proceed to attempt attacks in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2020 US Elections.
The US annual HTA Reports provide information on threats targeting US government agencies and their private sector partners.
Reference:
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/2020_10_06_homeland-threat-assessment.pdf
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