SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The company used by hackers as a leapfrog for the worst crackdown on U.S. government computers in at least five years has some of the biggest names in hire security to help overcome it.
SolarWinds Corp., whose back-up versions of their network management software went out to thousands of customers, had already hired CrowdStrike Holdings Inc to help it assess the harassment and protecting it going forward.
On Thursday, they hired a new consulting firm created by U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Group vice president Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos, former chief security officer at Facebook Inc.
Krebs was the first director of the CISA Homeland Security unit and led the national effort to keep the 2020 election safe from slowing down and to eliminate related misinformation. He was fired by President Donald Trump after he went on to say that the election was “rigged” but free of electronic chicanery.
Trump has falsely stated that the Nov. election. 3, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, full of cheating.
Stamos, an associate professor at Stanford, helped coordinate a broader effort with academics and nonprofits to quickly eliminate coordinated efforts to disseminate misinformation related to selection. He was also among those brought in to provide security advice at video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications Inc. which was growing rapidly following a report of a series of faults.
Krebs said he planned to devote himself entirely to the new business, which advocates security practices for multiple clients and also fights against misinformation.
“There have been successful leaders who embrace cybersecurity but also community and communication, and they tend to not only survive in this environment, but thrive,” Krebs said. in an interview. “We want to help officers become those leaders. There is a process we want to help organizations build. ”
The SolarWinds code was found within a half-dozen federal agencies that were then used more by hackers who said U.S. officials work for the Russian government, which has been denied.
SolarWinds CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna, who joined the company this week, said in a blog post that hiring the experts was part of an effort to transform the company, which has been criticized for poor security.
“We have brought in the experience of Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos to help with this review and provide the best guidance on our journey to becoming a leading software development company,” said one company talk by email.
Stamos said he was not interested in a full-time job in Biden administration, and would prefer to advise part-time with several companies either in a crisis or hoping to get in better shape before one .
“These conventional Russian attacks have created a new set of companies that now understand that they need to play at a much higher level,” Stamos said.
Reporting by Joseph Menn; Additonal Recitation by Kanishka Singh; Edited by Peter Cooney