The far-reaching effects of the massive cyberattack on the United States will be felt for months and years to come as more blame is cast toward Russia.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that a preponderance of evidence points that way, and Axios said the damaging assault is an act of war.
The hack ran for nine months and cut through large sectors of the federal government and private business.
Though Russia certainly is the prime suspect among cybersecurity experts, Pompeo is the first U.S. official to point the finger.
“This was a very significant effort, and I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,” Pompeo told “The Mark Levin Show” on Friday.
Russia has denied involvement.
“If this had been a physical attack on America’s secrets, we could be at war,” Mike Allen of Axios wrote Friday.
The federal departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, State and Energy are counted among the victims, and Microsoft said more than 40 of its clients were compromised – 80% of those being American companies.
The tech giant reflected on the trouble the breach has created.
“As much as anything, this attack provides a moment of reckoning,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote on Friday.
The White House has been and is remaining silent.
Friday on Sirius XM, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called out President Donald Trump during what Romney called the equivalent of “Russian bombers reportedly flying undetected over the entire country.”
“They had the capacity to show that our defense is extraordinarily inadequate; that our cyberwarfare readiness is extraordinarily weak,” Romney said. “… And in this setting, not to have the White House aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really, really quite extraordinary.”
Add comment