Benzinga | Feb 23, 2021 02:07PM EST

SolarWinds, Microsoft, FireEye, CrowdStrike To Testify In Senate In Russian Cyber Hack Case

* SolarWinds Corp (NYSE: SWI) CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) President Brad Smith, FireEye Inc (NASDAQ: FEYE) CEO Kevin Mandia, and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD) CEO George Kurtz are expected to defend themselves to the Senate over a set of interruptions that have enabled alleged Russian spies to wreak havoc across American networks, compromising nine federal agencies and 100 private-sector companies, Reuters reports.

* The CEOs will debate over mandatory transparency against the most avoidable topic of cyberespionage.

* FireEye was the first company to detect hackers. SolarWinds' software was breached to break into a host of other organizations. CrowdStrike is assisting SolarWinds to recover from the breach.

* The exact scope of the breach is wider than estimated as different company executives try to keep their role in the cyberespionage campaign a secret.

* Microsoft has urged cyberattack victims to share information towards the resolution of the threat.

* A Russian government hacker group named APT29 or Cozy Bearwas allegedly responsible for the attack last year. The hack was hard to perceive and difficult to undo as per the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Microsoft admitted that malicious software in its system with certain Microsoft Azure cloud services systems might have been compromised. The company also confirmed the removal of malicious Solar Winds binaries from their environment.

* The hack could not have come at a worse time than when the U.S. government was battling increased online vulnerability, with most officials working from home amidst the pandemic and accessing sensitive applications and data from global endpoints.

* Price action: On the last check Tuesday, SWI shares are down 3.38% at $15.45, MSFT shares are down 0.92% at $232.38, FEYE shares are down 4.78% at $19.54, and CRWD shares are down 4.92% at $214.71.