US SEC investigates SolarWinds clients over cyber breach disclosures

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into the SolarWinds attack, focusing on whether some organisations did not disclose that they had been impacted by the breach.

The SEC has sent letters to a range of public issuers and investment firms to find out whether they had been a victim of last year’s hack and failed to disclose it, according to Reuters sources.

Additionally, the SEC is trying to find out whether public companies that have been victims had experienced a lapse of internal controls. It is also investigating the policies belonging to certain companies to see where they are designed to protect customer information.

Sources told the publication that if the issuers and investment firms disclose details about the breaches, they would not be hit with enforcement actions. In the US, securities law requires companies to share material information that could affect their share prices, which includes cyber breaches.

A spokesperson for SolarWinds said in a statement to IT Pro: "Our top priority since learning of this unprecedented attack by a foreign government has been working closely with our customers to understand what occurred and remedy any issues."

The company also disclosed it was "collaborating with government agencies in a transparent way”.

IT Pro has contacted the SEC for comment.

SolarWinds was targeted by a cyber attack in December which saw hackers infect the networks of thousands of US companies and government networks. The company advised users to upgrade to the latest version of its Orion software to deal with the breach.

The US and UK government agreed that the Russian foreign intelligence service was behind the attack. These hackers launched a new wave of attacks last month, targeting 150 government agencies, think tanks, consultants and NGOs from 24 countries, according to Microsoft, which found that an estimated 3,000 email accounts had been targeted.