WASHINGTON — The SolarWinds hack has ravaged around 18,000 customers and at least nine government agencies.
The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Homeland Security Committees wanted to know how bad was it, and what can be done to ensure it doesn't happen again.
"In the 15 years I've served on the Homeland Security Committee, one thing has become clear: we can't become so concerned with the last attack that we're blind to the threats of the future," said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi).
The hack, believed to be perpetrated by the Russian government, was spread through a vulnerability in widely used Microsoft cloud software.
Microsoft President Bradford Smith acknowledged that America's cyber defenses must be hardened, but noted that the U.S. currently faces a shortage of 300,000 trained cybersecurity personnel.
"It really exposed in a really dramatic way how vulnerable our systems still are, how we've not made enough progress on cybersecurity," said Sen., Mark Warner (D-Virginia).
Warner, who is the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, says this episode proves the US. needs to redouble its efforts on cyber defense.
"And our adversaries who don't have to spend as much money on planes and ships and tanks as we do can spend it on cyber, spend it stealing our intellectual property," he said. "It's really something we have to grapple with."