Dick Durbin, Democratic Senator of Illinois, said that the Russian hack of SolarWinds, maker of the network management tool Orion, was “virtually a declaration of war.”
“We need an honest reset in terms of relationships between the United States and Russia,” he told CNN.
Durbin continued, “We can’t be buddies with Vladimir Putin and have him at the same time making this kind of cyberattack on America. This is virtually a declaration of war by Russia on the United States, and we should take it that seriously.”
Durbin’s comments come after President Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser, Tom Bossert, wrote in an op-ed to The New York Times that how big the hack was is “hard to overstate.”
Bossert also wrote, “the Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months.”
Durbin promised that “there will be a price to pay for this.”
He said, “this is nothing short of a virtual invasion by the Russians into critical accounts of the federal government. When adversaries such as Russia torment us, tempt us, breach the security of our nation, we need to respond in kind.”
Joe Biden also weighed in on the issue. He 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.”
He also said that he would “disrupt and deter” future cyberattacks by “imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, including in coordination with our allies and partners.”
According to a Reuters report, Russian-backed hackers infiltrated internal email systems at the U.S. Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. They had been spying on communications for months.
Government intelligence officials fear the hackers may have gotten into the records of other federal agencies.
A group working for the Russian Foreign Intelligence service is responsible for the breaches, and the FBI is currently investigating the hack.
The group goes by APT29 or Cozy Bear. The group is also responsible for a hack of the White House and State Department during the Obama administration, the report said.
It’s not clear exactly what information was accessed during the more recent hacks. However, they are serious enough that the National Security Council met at the White House to discuss it.
It is believed to be connected to a larger campaign that also included a hack of the major U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye.
The White House has yet to comment on the breach. However, when asked if Russia was responsible, a U.S official responded, “We believe so. We haven’t said that publicly yet because it isn’t 100 percent confirmed.”
I think we need to be watching out with what China is doing against us.
How is it that the United States is so vulnerable to this kind of attack by another country. I’ll tell you why. We have Federal employees, mostly women and minorities, who don’t do their jobs correctly. All they care about is their pay checks and doing as little as possible for it.
I don’t know about “russia” because the left wing COMMUNISTS in our “government” have been yapping about :”russia’ ever since President Trump got onto office, HOWEVER I would be VERY concerned about CHINA because dementia-Joe and his ineligible “anchor baby” “ho” VP, are both bought, sold, and owned by the Chi-coms. Just another communist “tactic” of “don’t look what is REALLY happening as the American people are CONNED again”
Our so called president is behind this with Russia. He wants to set up business in the USSR.
SHTF?
We’re screwed.
We need to cut off the Russian balls and next will be the same in China. It is time to before our President gets moving now!!!
Stop fear-mongering. Everyone knows that Trump and Putin are best friends. These cyber invasions occurred because Trump allowed it to happen.
Why are worried about Russian Hackers? Biden and his kid have been influence peddling since 2017. If people can’t hack there way in, they just pay politicians with Lobby money and get what they want. Or…they just have spys sleep with politicians and get it that way. We DON’T PUNISH PEOPLE FOR ESPIONAGE like other countries do to protect their data!!!!!!