US media reported that the Department of State and Internal Security had joined other federal agencies and major companies that were subjected to cyber attacks, which US officials accused Russia of carrying out, which Moscow denied.

The Washington Post said that the US State Department and the National Institutes of Health have become the latest federal agencies to be exposed to an advanced espionage operation.

The newspaper said that the list of victims of electronic espionage is expected to increase, which also includes the ministries of Treasury, Trade, Homeland Security and private companies.

The newspaper had previously quoted - unnamed officials - that the Ministry of Homeland Security - which is tasked with protecting the country from cyberattacks - is facing a large-scale piracy campaign by the Russian government.

The officials said that the targeting of the Ministry of Homeland Security came after similar cyber attacks on the Ministries of Treasury and Commerce, and added that the list of institutions that were attacked is expected to increase, including private institutions.

The newspaper considered that the exposure of the Ministry of Homeland Security to piracy, which is the ministry responsible for securing the country from risks, including cyber attacks, shows the extent of this piracy and raises doubts about the adequacy of federal cybersecurity efforts in securing the country.

In turn, Fox News quoted the White House as confirming that the Treasury Department (USDT) had been under a high-level cyber attack supported by a foreign government.

The "Wall Street Journal" newspaper said that computer systems in a large number of US government agencies have been exposed to hacking operations, which are believed to be part of a cyber espionage campaign behind the Russian intelligence.

The newspaper added that the pirates planted an electronic virus in one of the computers of the "SolarWindows" company, which specializes in managing networks.

Among its clients are highly sensitive federal departments, such as the Secret Service in charge of protecting the US President, the Pentagon, the Federal Reserve, and Lockheed Martin. (Lockheed Martin) for Military Industries, and the National Security Agency (NSA).

In the same context, American security sources reported that Russian hacker groups affiliated with the Russian security services were responsible for a large-scale infiltration operation that took place yesterday, Monday, against American targets.

The pirates have targeted the sites "Gmail" (Gmail) and "YouTube" (YouTube), in addition to a number of major American companies that provide their information services.

The Gmail service, provided by Google, YouTube, and other services, was temporarily suspended yesterday.

Large outages have been reported globally.

Peskov said that his country has offered the United States cooperation to combat cyber piracy (Anadolu Agency)

Russian


denies For his part, Russian Presidential Spokesman (Kremlin) Dmitry Peskov denied the US accusations that his country was behind the recent cyber attacks.

Peskov said the Americans continue to press charges against the Russians for all actions targeting them.

He added that Moscow had on several occasions offered Washington an initiative for joint cooperation in combating electronic piracy.

But it remained without attention on the American side, as he put it.

Reuters reported yesterday, citing informed sources, that the piracy operations that targeted the US Department of Homeland Security were extremely complex and were carried out by pirates believed to be working for the Russian government.

Since the 2016 US presidential elections, US accusations have continued to Russia of being behind many piracy operations.

The supposed Russian interference in those elections was the focus of the investigations, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the investigations ended last year, and they concluded that there was no evidence of President Donald Trump's collusion with Russia to help him win the 2016 elections.