By exploiting a vulnerability in software commonly used by US government agencies, a Russian group of “hackers” managed to infiltrate several agencies, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced Thursday.

Behind the cyberattack is the “CL0P” group, also known as “TA505”, which is based in Russia, a senior US government official said in statements to the press.

That source explained that there is currently no evidence that the “hackers” acted in concert with the Russian government.

In a telephone press conference, CISA Director Jen Easterly assured that the attack “will not have a significant impact” on the government’s activities, explaining that it is a campaign of small-scale cyber-attacks.

Easterly assured that what happened has nothing to do with the massive cyber-attack carried out in 2019 by Russian agents against some 18,000 US government agencies and major companies in the country, exploiting issues on the SolarWinds platform.

According to information released this Thursday, the “hackers” used this vulnerability to infect computers with malicious programs, steal data and then demand a reward from the victims.

Ipswitch, the company that developed that software, gave details of the vulnerability discovered in “MOVEit” in a statement on June 5 and announced that it had opened an investigation, in addition to working with its customers to prevent any damage.

Two days later, on June 7, CISA itself released a report asking government agencies to exercise caution and already pointing to “CL0P” as the culprit.

Attacks also on universities and hospitals

This new attack adds to the attacks of recent weeks by universities, hospitals and local governments across the United States.

Among the victims are Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the health centers associated with that education center, which suffered a May 31 cyberattack that resulted in the theft of personal information, from patient names to bank details, the institution reported yesterday. Wednesday in a statement.

Similarly, Georgia’s state university system, which includes the University of Georgia, with 40,000 students, and a dozen other higher education centers, announced Wednesday that it had suffered a cyberattack and was studying its “magnitude” and “severity.”