On December 8, Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye, said that in addition to stealing the company’s internal Red Team tool, the hacker group searched for information related to some of the company’s government customers.
Mandia described the group that carried out the attack as `a very sophisticated, disciplined and highly operational security organization. This attack technique leads us to believe that this was a state-sponsored cyberattack.`
FireEye provides security services to a variety of customers in the security industry in the US and abroad.
`Based on 25 years of experience in cybersecurity and incident response, I can conclude that FireEye is suffering an attack by a country with the world’s leading attack capabilities.
`The attackers appear to have created a completely new and perfect technique that directly targets FireEye weaknesses. This hacker organization is certainly highly trained in security operations and professional in its behavior.`
Microsoft confirmed that there is an element of state sponsorship
FireEye’s representative said the company’s initial assessment has been confirmed by Microsoft and is seeking investigative help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
FireEye believes attackers have obtained its internal penetration testing tools.
FireEye is not the first major security company to be attacked by state-led hackers.
On Twitter, most cybersecurity experts expressed support for FireEye and praised the company for announcing the incident and taking quick remedial measures.
`I applaud FireEye for promptly making this news public, and I hope the company’s decision to disclose this intrusion will help motivate others facing similar intrusions,` the senator said.
`We have asked companies to take serious preventative steps to secure their systems, but this case also shows the difficulty in stopping nation-state hacker organizations,` said Mr. Warner.