Reuters quoted a high-ranking official in the US administration as saying that US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien cut short a visit to Europe to return to Washington, to coordinate the response to the cyber breach that targeted several institutions in the United States this week, amid great anger within American circles over this. The hack, while Russia denies involvement in the attack.

Meanwhile, the New York Times quoted sources that some sections of the US Department of Defense were among the agencies that hackers succeeded in penetrating.

The Hill website, in turn, attributed a Defense Department spokesman as saying that the Pentagon is aware of these reports and is currently assessing the damage.

The "Washington Post" newspaper reported that the State Department and the National Institutes of Health had become the latest federal agencies to be exposed to a sophisticated espionage operation.

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

And American security sources had said - earlier - that groups of Russian pirates, affiliated with the Russian security services, were responsible for a large-scale infiltration operation against American targets.

Accusations to Russia

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphasized that Russia's use of cyber attacks against the United States is a constant and frequent matter.

He said in a radio interview that Russia tried to interfere in elections in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

He pointed out that the United States worked to stop it in 2020, and urged it to stop carrying out these malicious activities, adding that this matter poses a real challenge.

Pompeo added that the United States is still waiting for answers from Russia regarding the poisoning of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, noting that Washington and its European allies "have started imposing real prices" on Russia for this kind of activities, he said.

For his part, the senior Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, held Russia responsible for the recent cyber attacks on a number of US institutions.

Warner praised - during an interview with CNN - the director of the cybersecurity agency, the article, Chris Krebs, and expressed concern that US President Donald Trump did not denounce what he described as "Russian actions."

Advanced attacks

Former US National Security Adviser John Bolton said the recent cyber attacks targeting various federal agencies appear to have been sophisticated and highly successful.

In an interview with CNN, Bolton added that the relevant authorities will not reveal to the public the extent of the damage the attacks caused to these agencies, and he also indicated that what happened represents a challenge to the Biden administration coming.

The Wall Street Journal said that computer systems in a large number of US government agencies have been subjected to breaches, adding that the hackers have planted an electronic virus in one of the computers of the "SolarWindows" company specialized in managing networks. .

Among its clients are highly sensitive federal departments, such as the Secret Security Service charged with protecting the US President, the Pentagon, the Federal Reserve, Lockheed Martin for Military Industries, and the National Security Agency.

In the wake of the major breach, the US Agency for Information Security issued an urgent directive to all federal institutions, to cut off electrical power to all Solar Windows computers.

The spokesman for the Russian presidency (Kremlin), Dmitry Peskov, previously 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.