In the midst of legal battles, the Trump administration now faces another challenge. The White House has confirmed reports of widespread hacking, allegedly by Russian intelligence.
As if the end of 2020 wasn’t chaotic enough, the Trump administration now faces a data breach in its final weeks. The White House has issued statements to multiple news outlets confirming reports of hacking.
“The United States government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation,”
National Security Council Spokesman John Ullyot to Reuters
While much surrounding the incident(s) remains unclear and motives are unknown at this time, those surrounding the situation believe the perpetrator to be Russian intelligence agencies. This has been one of the most egregious and advanced hacking incidents in years. Those close to the action also say it’s too early to say how bad the situation is.
SolarWinds
SolarWinds, an IT company that is thought to be the breached medium of the attack, is utilized by “most of America’s Fortune 500 companies, all top ten U.S. telecommunications providers, all five branches of the U.S. military, the State Department, the National Security Agency, and the Office of President of the United States” according to Reuters and the SolarWinds website. It is unknown at this time which and how many government agencies and private entities have been compromised in this breach.
Also according to Reuters, SolarWinds said that it’s possible that “software updates may have been surreptitiously tampered within a ‘highly-sophisticated, targeted and manual supply chain attack by a nation-state.’” While the scope of this attack is unknown, it has been confirmed that both the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments have been breached. This attack gave hackers access to email systems and networks.
“Foreign actors have not stopped attacking our country and its critical and cybersecurity infrastructure since 2016. In fact, they’ve continued, grown more sophisticated, and only have to succeed once, while the U.S. government and companies alike have to pitch a perfect game. This news about FireEye is especially concerning because reportedly a nation-state actor made off with advanced tools that could help them mount future attacks.
We have asked the relevant intelligence agencies to brief the Committee in the coming days about this attack, any vulnerabilities that may arise from it, and actions to mitigate the impacts.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said in a statement given on his website.
While agencies are urgently trying to identify the cause and culprit of the data breach, President Trump has issued his concerns over Russian interference in the election.
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