Tag: with Trump it’s always Russia

Trump contradicts Pompeo in bid to downplay massive hack of U.S. government, Russia’s role

Washington Post logo

President Trump addressed the ongoing cyber hacks of the U.S. government for the first time on Saturday, seeking to turn blame away from Moscow in defiance of mounting evidence while downplaying how devastating the intrusions appear to be.

In a bizarre outburst on Twitter that Trump’s critics condemned for its alarming disconnect from the facts, the president contradicted his top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who on Friday pinned the breaches that have afflicted at least five major federal agencies “clearly” on Russia. Rather, the president baselessly suggested that the true culprit “may be China (it may!)”

Trump’s aversion to calling out the Kremlin for its malign activities in cyberspace and his deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a hallmark of his presidency. He has repeatedly trusted the word of Putin over the assessments of his own intelligence community, including its conclusion that Russia waged a sophisticated campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election — a verdict Trump believes calls into question the legitimacy of his victory four years ago. Continue reading.

Lawmakers ask whether massive hack amounted to act of war

The Hill logo

Lawmakers are raising questions about whether the attack on the federal government widely attributed to Russia constitutes an act of war.

The hacking may represent the biggest cyberattack in U.S history, and officials are scrambling to respond.

The response is further complicated by the presidential transition — President Trump has yet to comment publicly on the attack — and the fact that the U.S. has no clear cyber warfare strategy. Continue reading.

Biden and lawmakers raise alarms over cybersecurity breach amid Trump’s silence

Washington Post logo

Democrats and some Republicans raised the alarm Thursday about a massive and growing cybersecurity breach that many experts blame on Russia, with President-elect Joe Biden implicitly criticizing the Trump administration for allowing the hacking attack to occur.

“We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyber attacks in the first place,” Biden said in a statement. “Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.”

President Trump, by contrast, has said nothing about the hack affecting numerous federal agencies as well as U.S. companies. U.S. national security agencies are still assessing the scope and severity of the breach, which was discovered by a commercial firm. Continue reading.

More Hacking Attacks Found as Officials Warn of ‘Grave Risk’ to U.S. Government

New York Times logo

Minutes after the government statement, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned that his administration would impose “substantial costs” on those responsible. President Trump has been silent on the hacking.

WASHINGTON — Federal officials issued an urgent warning on Thursday that hackers who American intelligence agencies believed were working for the Kremlin used a far wider variety of tools than previously known to penetrate government systems, and said that the cyberoffensive was “a grave risk to the federal government.”

The discovery suggests that the scope of the hacking, which appears to extend beyond nuclear laboratories and Pentagon, Treasury and Commerce Department systems, complicates the challenge for federal investigators as they try to assess the damage and understand what had been stolen.

Minutes after the statement from the cybersecurity arm of the Department of Homeland Security, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned that his administration would impose “substantial costs” on those responsible. Continue reading.

Ex-adviser explains how Trump left the administration ‘compromised by the Russian government’

AlterNet logo

When Joe Biden is sworn as president of the United States on January 20, he will inherit a long list of major problems from the outgoing administration — and one of them, according to security expert Tom Bossert, is a massive security breach.

Bossert, who heads the security firm Trinity Cyber, served as a homeland security adviser under President Donald Trump. He was pushed out of the government when Trump hired John Bolton as national security adviser.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times, Bossert details the disturbing outlines of a sprawling cybersecurity breach of the federal government that was recently uncovered. Hackers were able to penetrate a private company known as SolarWinds, which happens to sell software to many different parts of the federal government. With this breach, the hackers were able to potentially gain unprecedented access to U.S. government systems thought to be secure. The extent of the espionage coup is only now being assessed, and the breach could leave vulnerabilities in the system that could persist indefinitely. Sizing up and undoing the damage is a daunting undertaking. Continue reading.

Federal investigators find evidence of previously unknown tactics used to penetrate government networks

Washington Post logo

Federal investigators reported Thursday on evidence of previously unknown tactics for penetrating government computer networks, a development that underscores the disastrous reach of Russia’s recent intrusions and the logistical nightmare facing federal officials trying to purge intruders from key systems.

For days, it has been clear that compromised software patches distributed by a Texas-based company, SolarWinds, were central to Russian efforts to gain access to U.S. government computer systems. But Thursday’s alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security said evidence suggested there was other malware used to initiate what the alert described as “a grave risk to the Federal Government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations.”

While many details remained unclear, the revelation about new modes of attack raises fresh questions about the access that Russian hackers were able to gain in government and corporate systems worldwide. Continue reading.

DHS, State and NIH join list of federal agencies — now five — hacked in major Russian cyberespionage campaign

Washington Post logo

The Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the National Institutes of Health on Monday joined the list of known victims of a months-long, highly sophisticated digital spying operation by Russia whose damage remains uncertain but is presumed to be extensive, experts say.

The list of victims of the cyberespionage, which already included the Treasury and Commerce departments, is expected to grow and to include more federal agencies and numerous private companies, said officials and others familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it is under investigation.

SolarWinds, the maker of widely used network-management software that the Russians manipulated to enable their intrusions, reported in a federal securities filing Monday that “fewer than 18,000” of its customers may have been affected. That’s a small slice of the company’s more than 300,000 customers worldwide, including the Pentagon and the White House, but still represents a large number of important networks. Russia has denied any role in the intrusions. Continue reading.

Scott Atlas apologizes for interview with Kremlin-backed RT

The White House coronavirus adviser said he didn’t know the outlet is a registered foreign agent.

Scott Atlas, a White House policy adviser on the coronavirus, apologized on Sunday for “allowing myself to be taken advantage of” by a Russian media outlet backed by the Kremlin.

Atlas said he spoke to RT without realizing the company’s foreign ties.

“I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent,” tweeted Atlas, a neuroradiologist who joined the White House in August. “I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us.” Continue reading.

Former CIA official reveals the ‘weird’ reason intel officers are ‘terrified’ to brief Trump on Russia

AlterNet logo

U.S. intelligence officers responsible for briefing President Donald Trump on the country’s potential threats are reportedly “terrified” to brief him on anything Russian-related due to concerns about his possibly explosive reaction.

During an interview with GQ magazine, former CIA official Marc Polymeropoulos weighed in on Trump’s perplexing affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to like him. At this point, Polymeropoulos insists no one is willing to brief the president on anything involving Russia.

“No one’s going to brief anything on Russia to the president,” Polymeropoulos told GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe. “They’re terrified of doing that. I know that from the briefers. Because he’ll explode and the whole thing will get derailed, because he has this weird affinity for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.” Continue reading.

White House was warned Giuliani was target of Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump

Washington Post logo

U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter.

The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts by former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The intelligence raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president, the former officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and conversations. Continue reading.