O’Brien will hold National Security Council meetings with his cyber security team in the coming days, as well as a meeting of the NSC’s potential principal committee in the next few days. The NSC had an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the attack.
The NSC announced Tuesday that it has set up the Cyber Unified Coordination Group to “ensure a consistent unity of efforts” as the government responds to what it calls a “significant cyber incident”.
O’Brien, who went to Europe to meet with foreign government officials on national security issues, Covid attracted probe to bring his wife on the trip during the boom in cases.
O’Brien was originally scheduled to stay in Europe until Saturday, but the official said he decided to return as soon as possible based on the extent of the breach. He is ignoring meetings with UK government officials in London as well as the swing through Rome.
He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Sunday and spoke in person, even though the event was largely virtual, on the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Economic Cooperation and Development Summit.
Surrounded by criticism of Russia during his presidency, Trump has not yet weighed in on cybertech criticism. The Russian government denies responsibility.
