US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that it is very clear that the Russians are behind large-scale cyber attacks targeting US government agencies, including the Treasury and Commerce and Nuclear Security Administration, while Microsoft said that 10 of its customers who were affected by the cyber attack are in 7 States, as well as the United States.

The US Secretary of State told The Mark Levin Show that the massive cyberattacks "were very large, and I think we can now say very clearly that the Russians have engaged in this activity."

Pompeo added that work is underway to assess what happened, stressing that some of the information will remain classified.

The US minister described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "threat to freedom-loving people."

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Washington Bissan Abu Kwik said that all eyes are on the White House, awaiting President Donald Trump's statements regarding the widespread cyber attacks, and he has not made any statements until now, which has sparked criticism in the United States.

The White House deputy spokesman, Brian Morgensteran, had confirmed that President Trump was working hard and receiving the necessary briefings regarding the attack.

He added that National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien is conducting continuous meetings with the relevant security authorities, to limit the consequences of the attack, and said that teams have been formed to deal with the attack, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency.

And Reuters reported that new details have revealed that hackers, suspected of being from Russia, have penetrated the systems of institutions in Britain, an American company to provide Internet services, and a local government in the state of Arizona.

other countries

Microsoft - one of the thousands of companies reached by hacker-planted malware - said it had notified more than 40 of its customers that hackers had infiltrated its networks.

The American company stated that about 30 of these clients are in the United States, while the rest are in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, Britain, Israel and the UAE, and most of these work with information technology companies and some research centers and governmental organizations.

The site "Yahoo News" (Yahoo News) quoted sources described as well-informed, as saying that the hackers who penetrated US federal networks conducted a preliminary experiment on the penetration in 2019, which indicates that they are working in an organized manner.

The site added that the hackers planted malicious files in the back doors of the software update servers of the American company "SolarWinds" in October of last year, which is the same method they used in the spring of this year, which allowed them to access the infected devices, and identify On the network architecture, or changing the configuration of their systems.

The National Security Agency, which oversees the US military intelligence, called for vigilance to prevent pirates from penetrating important systems of the army or the state, amid officials' warnings that the assessment of the extent of the damage resulting from the recent cyber attack may take months.

NY |

Despite the US government spending tens of billions in recent years to develop its offensive and defensive capabilities in cybersecurity, it has deployed defensive sensors all over the country, and called it "Einstein"!

However, all this failed to detect or stop the Red Square spies!

https://t.co/VvWncBxC98

- Abdullah Al-Ali (@CyberkovCEO) December 17, 2020

President Biden

In a related context, Al-Jazeera correspondent in Delaware, Murad Hashem, said that President-elect Joe Biden has assigned a team within his staff to follow up on the piracy, and Biden also receives briefings from the authorities charged with investigating these widespread attacks.

The US President-elect pledged the Russians to respond to the widespread cyber attacks that targeted sensitive US institutions, including the Nuclear Security Administration.

In an interview with "CBS" channel on Friday, Biden said that his administration would hold Russians accountable for the cyber attacks that affected several ministries, including defense, internal and foreign security, treasury, nuclear security administration, and institutions in the public and private sectors.

Russian response

In response to the US accusations, the director of the Al-Jazeera office in Moscow, Zaur Schaug, said that the Russian authorities say they will not respond to US media reports accusing them of responsibility for the cyber breach.

He added that Moscow's rhetoric may change following an official accusation from Washington by Secretary of State Pompeo, and the director of the island’s office in Moscow stated that Russia will - as usual - ask the US side to provide evidence and evidence of its involvement in this process.

On the other hand, the first official comment was issued from Britain on the major cyber attack in the United States, as Paul Chichester, Director of Operations at the British National Center for Cybersecurity, said that London is working with its international partners to understand the size of these operations and their impact on Britain, describing the incident of hacking security software to a company Solar Winds is complex and global.

Chichester stated that the use of this system for security software does not mean the availability of automatic immunity, and explained that the National Cyber ​​Security Center will work to mitigate any potential risks, calling on everyone to follow the instructions published by the center on its website.

Chichester urged organizations to take immediate steps to protect their networks, stressing that the center will provide more information as soon as it becomes available.