Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday blamed Russia for the massive cyberattack affecting multiple federal agencies and thousands of individual federal and private entities, saying it was “pretty clearly” behind the attack.
“I can’t say much more as we’re still unpacking precisely what it is, and I’m sure some of it will remain classified. But suffice it to say there was a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of U.S. Government systems and it now appears systems of private companies and companies and governments across the world as well,” Pompeo said on “The Mark Levin Show.”
“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,” he added.
Pompeo is the first major Trump administration official to attribute the hack directly to Russia, though the sophisticated large-scale attack has widely been presumed to be tied to the country.
Experts say the effort, which targeted third-party software contractor SolarWind, blindsided the U.S. government and reportedly affected numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and Treasury Department.
