WASHINGTON (AP) — The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn't bother trying to break one by one into the networks of each department.

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2020, file photo an American flag flies outside of the Justice Department building in Washington. The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn’t bother trying to break one-by-one into the networks of each department. Instead, they got inside by sneaking malicious code into a software update pushed out to thousands of government agencies and private companies. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, FIle)© Provided by Associated Press FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2020, file photo an American flag flies outside of the Justice Department building in Washington. The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn’t bother trying to break one-by-one into the networks of each department. Instead, they got inside by sneaking malicious code into a software update pushed out to thousands of government agencies and private companiesend partial quote from:https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-hack-of-us-agencies-exposed-supply-chain-weaknesses/ar-BB1d3FtN?ocid=BingNewsThis actually makes complete sense to me because by riding software updateswith malware you could effectively (if you chose the right updates to travel on)infect thousands of businesses and government offices around the world. Not just the U.S. but likely every government outside of Russia including China.The way someone likely would design something like this is just to install (through the software update) a back door into that system directly to Russia somehow. In this way there would not be many lines of suspicious code only a backdoor redirectto Russian Hackers embedded in the software update. And since the code would bereplicated thousands or millions of times when it was downloaded by governmentsand businesses and private individuals worldwide once it was considered to be a partof the update no one would question it likely because it wouldn't be in any computerlanguage at all but in a machine language code of zeros and ones only which humansdon't usually check because it is so tedious to do and might take hours or days to actually do. This is what I think has happened here and this makes complete sense to meafter studying software and hardware now since the 1960s when I was in college.begin quote:
A backdoor refers to any method by which authorized and unauthorized users are able to get around normal security measures and gain high level user access (aka root access) on a computer system, network or software application.

Backdoor computing attacks – Definition & examples ...

www.malwarebytes.com › cybersecurity
About featured snippets

People also ask

What is a backdoor in computer terms?
A backdoor in software or a computer system is generally an undocumented portal that allows an administrator to enter the system to troubleshoot or do upkeep. But it also refers to a secret portal that hackers and intelligence agencies use to gain illicit access. A backdoor has multiple meanings.Dec 11, 2014

Hacker Lexicon: What Is a Backdoor? | WIRED

www.wired.com › 2014/12 › hacker-lexicon-backdoor
Search for: What is a backdoor in computer terms?