One week after the first report of a cyber attack on US government agencies, US intelligence and security agencies say the attacks continue and the extent of the damage is still unknown due to the complexity and scale.
Online triangle analytical news site:
According to reports, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Nuclear Security Administration have also been hacked in the cyber-attacks, which began in mid-March 1998. A Donald Trump administration official likened the recent cyberattacks on US government institutions to “wells” and said Washington was still unaware of the depth of it. The US official, who spoke to Axius on condition of anonymity, said: “We do not yet know the depth of this well,” the US official said, adding that US government secrets could be stolen in ways that are not yet known. “The strange thing about these attacks is that they started at least in March and continued throughout the election period. However, the US government sounded the alarm about them from Sunday this week. It will take several months to estimate the damage caused by these attacks. Microsoft CEO Brad Smith told the New York Times that hackers had infiltrated at least 40 companies, government agencies and think tanks.
It’s Russia’s job
Last week, as the attacks became public, some American media outlets explicitly blamed Russia for the attacks, an issue that has been strongly denied by the Russians. But in the latest case, the Secretary of State reiterated that it was clear that the “Russians” were behind the recent widespread cyber-attacks on US government institutions. According to Sputnik, following the escalation of tensions in relations between Washington and Moscow, the US Secretary of State accused Russia of recent cyber attacks in the United States. “There was a tremendous effort to use some third-party software to embed code into US government systems,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Mark Levine Show. “I can say that we can clearly say that the Russians were involved.”
Closure of two consulates
Hours before the US Secretary of State’s accusation against Russia, US media reported on Washington’s decision to close its two consulates in Russia. The State Department reportedly informed congressional leaders in a letter dated December 10 that the government Trump will permanently close the US consulate in Vladivostok and temporarily close the US consulate in Yekaterinburg. According to the report, the US State Department said in a letter to Congress about the reason for the closure of its two remaining consulates in Russia that the closure was in response to challenges posed by US delegation staff following Russia’s 2017 plan to reduce the number of US diplomats on board. The U.S. embassy in Russia is facing it, and Russia’s plans to reduce the number of U.S. diplomats have led to a stalemate between the two countries in issuing diplomatic visas. Moscow will be the country’s only diplomatic center in Russia, and the United States will have no diplomatic presence throughout Russia’s vast territory.