Special Report: Administration Reportedly Plans Retaliatory Cyber Strike Against Russia While Grappling With China's Microsoft Exchange Hack

Authorities still not sure of the magnitude of 'big F’ing deal' Chinese hack, No sign federal agencies affected by Hafnium, Microsoft issues update to scanners for detecting web shells, more

(This special report is a follow-up to a special report we issued on Saturday on issues surrounding the Microsoft Exchange breach.)

The U.S. government is planning a series of clandestine moves against Russian networks in a clear attempt to signal to the country’s President Vladimir Putin that the acts are in retaliation for the massive SolarWinds hacks of U.S. government and business networks sources say. They also say that those actions will be combined with economic sanctions and an executive order from President Biden to accelerate federal networks' hardening.

The U.S. action was spurred by Microsoft’s discovery of state-sponsored Chinese threat groups, the largest dubbed Hafnium by Microsoft, which exploited flaws in the Office 365 email system. The White House issued a statement from the National Security Council saying that it “is undertaking a whole of government response to assess and address the impact” and that “this is an active threat still developing, and we urge network …