Washington – Upcoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain blamed the Trump administration for confusing reports on the massive cyber attack targeting dozens of US agencies and companies, said the federal government should speak with a “clear and unambiguous voice” about who is behind the hack.
“We should hear a clear and unambiguous assignment of responsibility from the White House, from the intelligence community. They are the people in charge. They are the ones who should make these messages and convey the determination of responsibility,” Klain said in an interview with “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Instead, we heard one message from the Secretary of State, another message from the White House, another message from the president’s Twitter feed.”
Several government agencies, including the Ministries of Finance, Energy and State, revealed that they were victims of a large-scale cyber-espionage campaign believed to be the work of Russian hackers. The perpetrators infiltrated computer networks through a widely used software product from SolarWinds, a Texas-based company with thousands of customers.
While the full extent of the hack is unclear, a growing number of federal agencies have revealed that they were among the organizations affected, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency said last week that the breach, which spans several countries, is a “ serious risk. ” constitutes for the government. and private networks. SolarWinds said an “outside nation-state” was behind the break, although the Kremlin has denied involvement.
On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Conservative radio host Mark Levin that “we can say quite clearly that it was the Russians who were involved in this activity.” But on Saturday, President Trump contradicted his secretary of state by suggesting on Twitter that China might be behind the cyber campaign and accusing the media of blowing the breach out of proportion.
Klain said President-elect Joe Biden and members of his transition team have been briefed on the hack, but said, “in terms of publicly communicating our government’s position, it must come from the current government and it should become clear. and unambiguous voice. “
“The official statements as to who is responsible for this particular attack must come in a clear and unambiguous manner from the government,” he said.
Mr Biden said in a statement last week that the burglaries were “a matter of great concern” and pledged to impose “significant costs on those responsible”.
“He will take steps as president to reduce the capacity of foreign actors to launch these kinds of attacks on our country,” Klain repeated on Sunday.
Still, he noted that there is uncertainty about the purpose of the attacks.
Were they targeting espionage? Are they designed to harm us? Klain said, adding “there are still many unanswered questions about the purpose, nature and extent of these particular attacks. “
More than 300,000 companies use SolarWinds’ products, but Kevin Mandia, CEO of the cybersecurity firm FireEye, who discovered the breach, said about 50 organizations or companies were directly affected.
This was not a drive-by shooting on the information superhighway. This was a sniper belonging to someone a mile from your house. These were special operations. And it would require special operations to track down this breach, ”said Mandia. ‘Face the nation. “So how they did it was, in a way that was completely clandestinely, very hard to say.”
Mandia said a foreign nation was “definitely” behind the cyber attack, but said it is crucial that the government is 100% sure who was responsible for a proportionate response.
“The amount of resources within the government, within the private sector and the reach that we have, we can speculate or we can do a little more work and put a neon sign on the building of the people who have done this,” he said. “And I am confident that as we continue the investigation, as it broadens, as more people learn the tools, tactics and procedures of this attack, we will bring it back and we will get attribution.”