{"id":7379,"date":"2023-10-31T03:13:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T03:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/solarwinds-faces-sec-lawsuit-after-2020-hack\/"},"modified":"2023-10-31T03:13:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T03:13:04","slug":"solarwinds-faces-sec-lawsuit-after-2020-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=7379","title":{"rendered":"SolarWinds faces SEC lawsuit after 2020 hack"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->Cyber Security<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=44d1ec79-e6af-4b3f-a701-838777f871b5&amp;concept-id=146af07b-ba26-4293-9aa8-d900930ac78f\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>SolarWinds, the IT company breached by Russian hackers as part of a sprawling espionage campaign in 2020, has been sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n<p>The SEC on Monday filed a complaint accusing the company and chief information security officer Tim Brown of misleading investors by not disclosing \u201cknown risks\u201d and not accurately representing its cyber security measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe allege that, for years, SolarWinds and Brown ignored repeated red flags about SolarWinds\u2019 cyber risks, which were well known throughout the company and led one of Brown\u2019s subordinates to conclude: \u2018We\u2019re so far from being a security minded company,\u2019\u201d Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC\u2019s enforcement division, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The alleged wrongdoing occurred from at least the company\u2019s initial public offering in October 2018 to December 2020, when one of the biggest cyber attacks in recent history put a spotlight on what until then had been a little-known Austin-based supply chain company. Hackers backed by Russian intelligence exploited a SolarWinds software product in order to spy on businesses and government organisations globally, including the US commerce and Treasury departments.<\/p>\n<p>A SolarWinds spokesperson said the company was \u201cdisappointed by the SEC\u2019s unfounded charges\u201d. Lawyers representing Brown said he had \u201cperformed his responsibilities at SolarWinds\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009with diligence, integrity, and distinction\u201d and said they looked forward to \u201cdefending his reputation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The SEC\u2019s action is the first time it has attempted to hold a chief information security officer personally liable for cyber security failures. Gary Gensler, SEC chair, has turned his focus to cyber risks, including proposing rules to broaden companies\u2019 disclosures.<\/p>\n<p>According to the complaint, Brown wrote in an internal presentation in 2018 that SolarWinds\u2019 \u201ccurrent state of security leaves us in a very vulnerable state for our critical assets\u201d. The deal\u2019s IPO registration documents, however, had only mentioned \u201cgeneric and hypothetical cyber security risk disclosures\u201d, the SEC said.<\/p>\n<p>A SolarWinds engineer told Brown in 2020 that he was \u201cspooked\u201d by activity at one of their customers, to which the executive replied saying the matter was \u201cvery concerning\u201d, according to the complaint. \u201cAs you guys know our backends are not that resilient and we should definitely make them better,\u201d he added, according to the complaint. <\/p>\n<p>The complaint also quoted internal communications warning in 2020 that \u201c[t]he volume of security issues being identified over the last month have outstripped the capacity of engineering teams to resolve\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The SEC alleged that these shortcomings were exploited in what it called \u201cone of the worst cyber security incidents in history\u201d, which unfolded between January 2019 and December 2020, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>A SolarWinds manager in November 2020 wrote in an instant message: \u201c[E]very time I hear about our head geeks talking about security I want to throw up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/44d1ec79-e6af-4b3f-a701-838777f871b5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Cyber Security myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox. SolarWinds, the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SolarWinds faces SEC lawsuit after 2020 hack | inFundPros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Cyber Security myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.SolarWinds, the IT company breached by\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=7379\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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