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The FBI is investigating whether the hackers behind a series of attacks by U.S. federal agencies and companies broke into project management software created by the Czech-based company JetBrains to hack it. to break customers, two people familiar with the investigation told Reuters Wednesday. .
PHOTO FILE: FBI police vehicles are sitting outside the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation building in Washington, USA, February 1, 2018. REUTERS / Jim Bourg
WASHINGTON: The FBI is investigating whether the hackers behind a series of attacks by U.S. federal agencies and companies broke into project management software created by Czech-based company JetBrains to hack its hackers. -solder, two people familiar with the investigation told Reuters on Wednesday.
Privately held JetBrains make software called TeamCity that is used by tens of thousands of customers to build other software. Customers include SolarWinds, said JetBrains CEO Maxim Shafirov from St. Louis. Petersburg, Russia, where JetBrains has offices.
SolarWinds revealed last month that someone with access to their system to develop network management software had installed back doors in two updates of its flagship Orion products.
Dozens of SolarWinds customers, including at least half a dozen U.S. companies, were then used by the same carriers.
U.S. intelligence agencies said on Tuesday that Russia appeared to be behind the devastating spree, although Russian officials denied that.
The FBI and cybersecurity officials at the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately make any comment.
Shafirov said his company had raised questions from SolarWinds but had not heard anything about JetBrains software as the hackers’ entrance into SolarWinds or other customers.
“We are not aware of any investigation and have not been contacted by any organizations,” a JetBrains spokesperson said. influence any of our messengers. “
Vulnerability has been publicly reported in TeamCity and has been considered “critical” in the past, as is the case with most major software.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn, Jack Stubbs and Christopeher Bing; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)