Hackers have hit the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal commission associated with international rights, according to cyber-security firm Avast.
USCIRF would not engage with Avast regarding the attack.
Avast believes it’s reasonable to conclude that the attackers were able to intercept and possibly exfiltrate all local network traffic in this organization.
This could include information exchanged with other US government agencies and other international governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused on international rights.
“We also have indications that the attackers could run code of their choosing in the operating system’s context on infected systems, giving them complete control,” said the cyber-security firm.
Taken altogether, this attack could have given total visibility of the network and complete control of a system and thus could be used as the first step in a multi-stage attack to penetrate this, or other networks more deeply.
USCIRF is a US federal government commission that monitors the right to freedom of religion or belief abroad.