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A large-scale cyberattack against US government agencies creates new problems between Washington and Moscow. Foreign hackers had attacked various US government institutions for months. They are said to have connections to the Russian secret service SWR. No reaction is expected from the Trump administration in the final days of his term.
This should go to the next president-elect Joe Biden. The Democrat has already announced that he will make cybersecurity the “top priority” at all levels of his government and that he will crack down on attackers.
While US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that Russia was “pretty sure” behind the attack, Trump defended Russia on Saturday. Christopher Krebs, who was fired by Trump last month as head of the US cybersecurity agency, also assumes that the attack came from Russia. Russia itself denies any involvement in the attacks.
On Sunday, Republican Senator and Trump critic Mitt Romney told CNN: “I think we have realized that the president has a weakness when it comes to Russia.” But it assumes “that the President-elect is a clear and intelligent person and will properly evaluate Russia and its capabilities.”
Democrats lack information from the Trump administration
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Romney said that Vladimir Putin’s administration had practically invaded the United States. “This invasion underscores that Russia has acted with impunity,” Romney said. Russia apparently did not assume that such an attack would be responded to particularly aggressively by the United States, Romney said. “That requires a response, and the response you would expect would be a cyber response,” Romney said. He does not know if the United States has the capacity to do so, but that is something that should be checked as soon as possible.
Republican Senator John Barasso also spoke in favor of “strong and effective punishment.”
A source from Biden’s team told Reuters news agency that the new president could step up the fight against cyber espionage. But Biden’s team would need more information from the previous government. Access to US President briefings was repeatedly postponed until about three weeks ago, as Trump continued to dispute the election results.
