A former FBI MP claimed that President Trump diverted money from cybersecurity resources to build a wall at a time when “the nation is under attack.”
Talking to MSNBC on Thursday about a report published in political who revealed that hackers have access to systems from the National Nuclear Security Administration, Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI deputy director of counterintelligence, said the reason for such attacks is that the cyber security budget under the Trump administration was squeezed to prioritize other things.
“Make no mistake, our nation is under attack and seems to be in progress,” Mr Figliuzzi said. “How does something like this happen? Where 300,000 customers of a private company are potentially affected, including the most sensitive agencies in our government, this is due to the fact that Russia has managed to find a single point of failure in our supply chain. “
“I mean, this product from SolarWinds is a network management product used by too many, honestly, of all government agencies and too many of our top telecommunications companies. Of which ten have been compromised as far as we know – so far. So it’s a bigger issue, Nicolle, of supply chain management. “
He also said that it is more than a failure of information, but rather “it is a failure of national defense.”
“This is the defense of our nation and our systems and the failure to oversee our supply chain, in a way that allows a company to serve so many government agencies,” he said.
“The Russians discovered this weakness and exploited it and we are still finding out the extent of the damage and Natasha reported that at that time our nuclear components were affected and one of the words that jumped there the report is damaged.”
On Thursday, political reported that the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, found out that hackers had accessed their networks as part of a large-scale espionage operation that affected at least half a dozen federal agencies. .
Mr Figliuzzi, who explains why he believes cybersecurity resources are underfunded, said: “We have a president who is diverting money, billions of them, to build a wall, changing staff at the top of the Pentagon, and I have not heard a word. about a plan or strategy to respond to this ongoing attack. “
He says such attacks happen more often because “there is no one in charge of the oval office in the entire intelligence community.”
“It’s as if on September 11 we will need the supervision and growth of the congress to realize what happened in the name of Heaven, who is responsible for where the failures occurred and we need supervision and coordination like never before.
He also warned that problems await the president-elect, who will have to take cyber attacks more seriously. “This is Warfare and Battlefield and it means that Joe Biden will fight another type of Cyber virus on the first day.”