SolarWinds is an IT firm located in Texas that provided IT support to 33000 different companies. In 2020, unknown cyberattackers managed to insert their own code onto SolarWinds-managed laptops which then allowed the cyberattackers to force additional malicious code to be downloaded. Since the IT software had all the permissions available to allow device management, users could not directly circumvent the malicious code. Clients of SolarWinds that were affected included US government agencies as well as private companies, and all of them were affected. Eventually, the US government announced that it was bringing sanctions against a small number of Russian intelligence officers, thus moving the cyberattack into the international politics domain. As this was also a massive breach, the US government is forming closer relationships with private companies in an effort to further reduce its exposure to cyberattacks of this nature.