Russia Likely To Be Responsible For The Hack Federal Agencies’ Hack
Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : January 6, 2021On Tuesday, the U.S. security agencies confirmed that the massive hack of the U.S government departments and corporations was Russia’s attempt. This confirmation rejected President Trump’s argument on China to be responsible for the same.
The joint statement was given by the FBI, the National Security Agency, the office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency together.
Russia Likely To Be Responsible For The Hack Federal Agencies’ Hack
It was the first attempt of the U.S. government to assign responsibility for the ruptures at various agencies and assign a possible motive for the operation, which was represented through the rare joint statement.
The statement said that the intention behind the hack was intelligence gathering, pointing out the evidence for an effort of espionage from Russia but not simply attempting to disrupt the U.S. government operations.
According to the agencies, the attempt from Russia was ongoing. They pointed out that the hunt for the threat wasn’t over.
The statement also said that a sustained and dedicated effort is required to compromise this serious situation.
For weeks, the experts believed Russia was responsible for the hacking, but it was not clear why the statement came on Tuesday.
The imprimatur of the security agencies is stated through the statement- even it was belated and informed that the Congressional members demanded the White House to make it public.
Last month’s reports from the Associated Press said that a statement was about to be issued by the White House officials stating Russia being the major hand behind the hack, but it was called off at the last minute.
On the same day of the report, Trump’s tweet came and suggested that China could be blamed for the hack without stating any evidence.
On lamenting the belated statement, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner said that he felt it was unfortunate to reveal the great intrusion of the government to issue a tentative attribution finally after three weeks, as he expected that he would see something even definitive and warning to Russia.
What Russia did was the worst cyberespionage failure that Washington faced. The decision to respond to the hacking campaign would likely be taken by the president-elect Biden after he becomes the president officially, as Trump’s administration is being finger-pointed by the public in its last lap.
Biden also said that he would impose substantial costs on countries that took part in the hacks on the U.S government.
However, It is not sure that as a response, any sanctions, prosecution, or offensive cyber operations would be involved or not.
Surprisingly, the hackers in their campaign penetrated through government agencies, defense contractors, and telecommunications companies across the nation for months.
This period was more than enough for the foreign hackers to damage national security by collecting important and secretive data, said, experts.
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.