Senators press for more information on Solarwinds hack

Key lawmakers said Tuesday they’re concerned they’ve been kept in the dark about what suspected Russian hackers stole from the federal government and they pressed Biden administration officials for more details about the scope of what’s known as the Solarwinds hack.

In letters to top officials, Sens. Gary Peters and Rob Portman said recent reporting by The Associated Press “raised the troubling possibility that some federal agencies did not fully report” the extent of the breach to Congress.

“Time and again this committee has discussed the challenges of defending against sophisticated, well-resourced, and patient cyber adversaries. Nevertheless, the fact remains that despite significant investments in cyber defenses, the federal government did not initially detect this cyberattack,“the senators wrote. Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Portman, of Ohio, is the top Republican.

The AP reported last month that suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, and members of his department’s cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries.

It’s been nearly four months since officials discovered what they describe as a sprawling, monthslong cyberespionage effort done largely through a hack of a widely used software from Texas-based Solarwinds Inc.

At least nine federal agencies were hacked, along with dozens of private-sector companies.