By Chris Prentice and AJ Vicens
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a deal in principle with SolarWinds Corp and its top security officer to end litigation tied to a Russia-linked cyberattack involving the software firm, they said in a court filing on Wednesday.
The SEC, SolarWinds and its chief information security officer, Timothy Brown, asked a federal judge on Wednesday to stay court proceedings while they finalize paperwork for a settlement. The judge granted their motion, filings showed.
In what was seen as a landmark case, the SEC sued the software company and its top security executive in connection with a two-year cyberattack known as Sunburst that targeted Austin, Texas-based SolarWinds. A judge dismissed much of the regulator’s case last year.
The SEC had said that the defendants defrauded investors by concealing security weaknesses, but U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who approved the stay, had said that the claims were based on “hindsight and speculation.”
An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on the matter beyond the public filings. A SolarWinds spokesperson declined to comment on the settlement terms but said the company is “pleased with the potential resolution and happy to focus on driving our business forward without distraction.”
The parties said they planned to file settlement paperwork or a joint status report by September 12.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Additional reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit; Editing by Mark Porter)
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