Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and a five-time Wash100 Award recipient, said critical data provided by a threat intelligence firm enabled the Department of Defense to immediately act and block adversaries from compromising federal networks and exploiting targets in 2020, Defense News reported Tuesday.
Nakasone, who also serves as director of the National Security Agency, said a tip from FireEye helped expose adversaries linked to a Russian intelligence agency and their role in the SolarWinds incident.
“Partnerships across the U.S government and industry allowed us to uncover the scope and scale of a foreign intelligence operation that leveraged private infrastructure and caused immense private sector harm,” Nakasone said during his speech at a summit Tuesday.
“Instead of decades-long access to the U.S. government, the power of partnerships was able to expose our adversaries before they burrowed into our networks, our data, or our weapon systems,” he added.
Nakasone also discussed the threat posed by ransomware to critical infrastructure.
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