O’Brien will be holding National Security Council meetings with his cybersecurity team in the coming days, as well as a likely meeting of the NSC executive committee in the coming days. The NSC had an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the attack.
The NSC announced Tuesday that it had created a Cyber Unified Coordination Group to “ensure continued unity of effort” as the government responds to what it calls “a significant cyber incident.”
O’Brien, who traveled to Europe to meet with foreign government officials on national security issues, was criticized for taking his wife on a trip on a spate of Covid cases.
O’Brien was originally supposed to be in Europe until Saturday, but he decided to return earlier given the magnitude of the offense, the referee said. He skips meetings with British government officials in London as well as a tour of Rome.
He met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Sunday and also spoke in person on the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, even though the event was largely virtual.
Trump, who does not like to criticize Russia during his presidency, has not yet considered criticizing the cyber attack. The Russian government is denying responsibility.