US government agencies hacked; Russia possible culprit

US government agencies hacked; Russia possible culprit

Hackers broke into the networks of the Treasury and Commerce departments as part of a global cyberespionage campaign revealed just days after a leading global cybersecurity firm announced that it had been breached in an attack that industry experts said bore the hallmarks of Russian tradecraft.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity arm are investigating what experts and former officials said appeared to be a large-scale penetration of US government agencies “” apparently, the same monthslong cyberespionage campaign that also afflicted the prominent cybersecurity firm FireEye.

"This can turn into one of the most impactful espionage campaigns on record,“ said cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch.

The hacks were revealed less than a week after FireEye disclosed that foreign government hackers had broken into its network and stolen the company's own hacking