Cybersecurity firm used by the US government hacked 'almost certainly' by Russians: report

As a Senate Cybersecurity Subcommittee member, Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) pushed information from FireEye, saying that overseas hackers were a threat to the United States. Now it turns out the company has been hacked, "almost certainly" by the Russians, the New York Times reported.

FireEye has key cybersecurity contracts with the U.S. government that help with malware detection. Perdue owns as much as $250,000 in shares of the company. They were among the companies to sound the alarm about government agencies being hacked by "the most sophisticated attackers." Evidence, in this case, "points to Russia's intelligence agencies," said the report. They said that it could be an example of the country "exacting their revenge."

According to the specifics about the hack, the company said in a statement that their systems were penetrated by "a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities" using "novel techniques" to steal their cybersecurity toolkit. That would mean that those hackers could use those tools to then hack into anyone using the FireEye systems, including the American government.

"It was a stunning theft, akin to bank robbers who, having cleaned out local vaults, then turned around and stole the FBI's investigative tools. In fact, FireEye said on Tuesday, moments after the stock market closed, that it had called in the FBI," the Times reported.

Perdue, who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, has urged action on Russia, calling President Vladimir Putin a "thug" and "nefarious." But he then claimed that Trump’s actions on Russia have been “the right strategy.”Trump has ignored the 2016 election hack and spent the past four years refusing to attack Putin or Russia for any of his aggressive tactics to undermine the United States.

FireEye is one of Perdue's most prolific trades over the course of his six-year term in the Senate. He had 2,596 trades total while in office, accounting for one-third of all stocks traded by senators. Of those 61 trades involved FireEye.

Trump has under 45 more days left in the White House, and it's unclear if he'll do anything to protect the government, investigate Russia or act against Russia.

See the full report at the New York Times.