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Even in normal times, the transition from one American president to the next is a particularly delicate time. This is especially true this year, in which the loser in the election denied defeat and blocked the addition of the new for weeks.
The American superpower seems distracted by its domestic political troubles, and that brings malicious foreign forces to the scene.
The hacking attack on US government agencies, which became public knowledge last week, is apparently even bigger and more dangerous than expected. According to Politico magazine, hackers also broke into various departments of the Department of Energy, including the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the American nuclear arsenal, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which monitors part of the national electrical network. The responsible committees of the US Congress were briefed on this on Thursday.
Seven federal authorities are now affected. The US cybersecurity agency Cisa provided detailed information on Thursday for the first time on known cyber attacks to the departments of finance, national security, foreign affairs, agriculture and commerce, as well as the National Institutes of Health.
The risk posed by large-scale cyberattacks by foreign hackers to federal authorities and US companies must be “taken very seriously,” Cisa said. The attack, which began no later than March, was carried out by an “advanced and persistent” actor, security authorities said Thursday. The attackers had shown “perseverance, operational security and complex skills.” Defense against hackers is “extremely complex and challenging.”
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blames Russia for the large-scale cyber attack. The perpetrators had tried with great effort to access the government’s IT system through third-party software, Pompeo said in a radio broadcast on Friday. It is “pretty clear” that Russia is behind these attacks.
Donald Trump breaks his days of silence
The current president of the United States, Donald Trump, sees it differently from his secretary of state. If it gets its way, Russia is not necessarily behind the large-scale cyberattack against American government institutions, but possibly China. Russia is always suspected if something happens, Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Possibly also China, but this option is not being discussed “mainly for financial reasons.” Trump downplayed the scope and risk of the hacking attack in his tweet and used the incident to re-spread unsubstantiated allegations of fraud regarding the presidential election.
Other government officials also accuse Russia of being involved in the attack. The US media had also reported on the attackers’ ties to the Russian secret service. Moscow rejects it.
© Jason Redmond / AFP
But the highly complex approach suggests that the absolute professionals are at work. As Cisa explained, the hackers used malware that was activated when a popular program from the Texas company Solarwinds was updated. According to the Reuters news agency, another “big tech company” had been hacked to gain access to its clients’ networks.
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Government agencies and corporations are among Solarwinds clients. The software company Microsoft has also used the “Politico” program and has also been affected by a hacker attack. According to Solwarwinds, around 18,000 customers are affected. Three states are also said to have come under attack, Bloomberg News reports. What exactly is behind the attack and how extensive the damage is is still open.
Joe Biden is concerned about the reports
The excitement in Washington is great, and it is compounded by the distrust shown by the administration of still President Donald Trump.
Newly elected President Joe Biden was deeply concerned by the reports and announced that he would make cybersecurity a “top priority” at all levels of his administration. As soon as his government is in office, it will crack down on the attackers, he said. Democrats in Congress are demanding better information about the scope of the attacks.
According to the Ministry of Energy, areas that directly affect national security are not affected. But the National Security Council has already implemented emergency measures that are rarely used, writes “Politico,” citing a senior government official as saying that this could be “one of the most far-reaching cyber attacks in US history.”
