Washington – White House chief of staff Ron Klain has blamed the Trump administration for confusing messages massive cyber attack which targeted dozens of US agencies and corporations, saying the federal government should speak with a “clear and unequivocal voice” about who is behind the hack.
“We should hear a clear and unequivocal allocation of responsibility from the White House, from the intelligence community. They are the responsible people. They are the ones who should convey those messages and convey the confirmation of responsibility,” Klain said. he said in an interview on Sunday, “Make the Nation.” “Instead, what I heard is a message from the secretary of state, a different message from the White House, a different message from the president’s Twitter feed.”
Several government agencies, including the treasury, energy and state departments, have revealed that they were the victims of a massive cyber espionage campaign, which is believed to be the work of Russian hackers. The perpetrators infiltrated computer networks through a widely used software product from SolarWinds, a Texas company with thousands of customers.
While the scope of the hack is unclear, a growing number of federal agencies have revealed that they are among the affected organizations, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency said last week that the intrusion, which is spreads across several countries, poses a “serious risk” to the government. and private networks. SolarWinds said an “external national state” was behind the breach, although the Kremlin denied involvement.
On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Conservative radio host Mark Levin that “we can say quite clearly that the Russians are engaged in this activity.” But on Saturday, President Trump contradicted his secretary of state, suggesting on Twitter that China could be behind the cyber campaign and accusing the media of throwing the disproportionate violation.
Klain said President-elect Joe Biden and members of his transition team were briefed on the hack, but said “in terms of public communication of our government’s position, it must come from the current government and it should come. in a clear and unequivocal voice. “
“Official statements about who is responsible for this particular attack must come from the administration in a clear and unequivocal manner,” he said.
Mr Biden said in a statement last week that the intrusions were “a matter of great concern” and promised to impose “substantial costs on those responsible”.
“He will take steps as president to degrade the ability of foreign actors to launch such attacks on our country,” Klain reiterated on Sunday.
However, he noted that there was uncertainty about the purpose of the attacks.
“Were they targeted for espionage?” Were they designed to cause us harm? “There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the purpose, nature and extent of these specific attacks,” Klain said.
More than 300,000 companies use SolarWinds products, but Kevin Mandia, CEO of cybersecurity company FireEye, which discovered the breach, said about 50 organizations or companies were directly affected.
“This was not a car shooting on the information highway. It was a sniper shot from someone a mile away from your home. It was a special operation. And he was going to take special operations to detect this breach,” he said. said Mandia, “Face the Nation.” “So the way they did it was in a completely clandestine way, very hard to say.”
Mandia said a foreign nation is “definitely” behind the cyber attack, but said it is crucial that the government be 100% sure who is responsible for ensuring a proportionate response.
“The amount of resources inside the government, inside the private sector and the size we have, we can speculate or do something more and we can put a neon sign on the building of those who did this,” he said. “And I am very confident as we continue the investigation, as it expands, as more people learn the tools, tactics and procedures of this attack, we will bring it back and we will receive an award.”