Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Mike Pompeo Championing Democracy: How America Can Dilute The Rise Of Authoritarian Powers on Friday blamed Russia for the massive cyber attack on multiple US agencies and thousands of individual federal and private entities, saying the country was “quite clearly” behind the attack.
“I can’t say much more as we are still unpacking exactly what it is, and I’m sure some of it will remain secret. to essentially embed code into US government systems and it is now also appearing systems of private companies and corporations and governments around the world, ”Pompeo said on“ The Mark Levin
MORE Show. “
“This was a very significant effort, and I think it is so that we can now say quite clearly that it was the Russians who engaged in this activity,” he added.
Pompeo is Trump’s first major government official to directly attribute the hack to Russia, although the sophisticated large-scale attack is widely believed to be linked to the country.
Experts say the effort, which targeted third-party software contractor SolarWinds, blinded the U.S. government. Numerous federal agencies, including the Energy, Homeland Security, State and Finance Departments, were reportedly breached.
Printed on a public response from President Trump
Donald Trump Trump Signs Bill To Keep Government Open Amid US Emergency Talks To Shut Down Two Russian Consulates ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Social Media Trends Following New Space Force Name MORE on the hack, Pompeo suggested that “a wiser course of action to protect the American people is to proceed calmly and defend freedom.”
Although Trump has not responded to the attack, president-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenUS Shuts Down Two Russian Consulates On The Money: Congress Approves Bill To Prevent Closure As Coronavirus Talks Enter Weekend | Federal Reserve fights emergency talks Leading legal experts are pushing for MORE aggressive immigration action has vowed to “increase” cyber security across the government and “make tackling this breach a top priority from the moment we take office”.
“Our opponents should know that as president I will not stand by and idly stand by cyber attacks on our nation,” Biden said Thursday, adding that his government would impose “significant charges” on anyone responsible for malicious attacks to deter such actions. .
Experts have described the SolarWinds attack as one of the most successful cyber intrusions in US history, with hackers able to gain access to systems as early as March.
SolarWinds has numerous government agencies and Fortune 500 companies among its customers. As many as 18,000 customers have downloaded compromised software from the company that supplied malware introduced by hackers.
FireEye, a leading cybersecurity company, revealed the hack earlier this month, saying that its systems had been invaded by “a country with the highest level of attack capabilities.”
Federal officials have said it will likely take weeks, if not months, to fully determine the scale of the attack.
Lawmakers have raised the alarm and criticized Trump for not addressing the breach publicly.
“I think the White House should say something aggressive about what happened. This is almost like flying a Russian bomber flying unnoticed over the country, including the country’s capital, and to not respond in such an environment is really astonishing, “Sen. Mitt Romney
Willard (Mitt) Mitt Romney Lawmakers Call On Trump To Take Action On Massive Government Hack Hillicon Valley: Lawmakers Ask If Mass Hack Is An Act Of War | Microsoft says systems have been exposed to massive SolarWinds hack | Senators are pushing to keep technical liability shields out of the UK trade deal. Night Defense: Biden Team Out Concerns ‘Abrupt Stop’ in Pentagon Collaboration | Chief of defense pushes back | Lawmakers wonder if a major cyber attack is MORE an act of war (R-Utah) said in an interview this week.
Lawmakers have urged Trump to take immediate action, including by signing the annual defense policy law. The legislation includes a number of cybersecurity provisions, including one to restore the federal cyberczar’s position and another to strengthen defensive measures against cyber-attacks. Trump has threatened to veto an unrelated technical issue.
“One of the immediate steps the government can take to improve our cyber attitudes is signing the NDAA into law,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chair. James Inhofe
James (Jim) Mountain Inhofe Lawmakers Call on Trump to Take Action Against Massive Government Hacking Legislators Ask If Mass Hacking Equals Act of War Trump Faces Bipartisan, International Setback Over Western Sahara Recognition MORE (R-Okla.) And rank member Jack Reed
Jack Reed Lawmakers Call on Trump to Take Action Against Massive Government Hack Lawmakers Ask If Mass Hack Will Equivalent Act of War Biden Selects Susan Rice to Lead Domestic Policy Council, McDonough for Veterans Affairs MORE (DR.I.) said in a joint statement Thursday. “The NDAA has always been ‘must-pass’ legislation – but this cyber incident makes it even more urgent for the bill to become law without further delay.”
The Trump administration has established a cyber coordination group made up of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to respond to the hack and describe it as a “ set of government “effort.