Robert O’Brien returned to the US on Tuesday afternoon.
Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien returned early from a trip to the Middle East and Europe to tackle the hack of US government agencies, a National Security Council spokesman said.
O’Brien planned to return to Washington on Saturday, but only visited Israel and France before canceling stops in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the UK, a person familiar with the matter said. He returned to the US on Tuesday afternoon.
According to another person familiar with the case, US government agencies were attacked as part of a global campaign organized by hackers believed to have links to the Russian government. The hackers allegedly installed a malicious vulnerability in software from Texas-based SolarWinds Corp., whose customers are top government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
“Ambassador O’Brien will return to address the hacking incident,” said National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot. “He is holding NSC meetings tonight and tomorrow morning and will convene a high-level interaction meeting this week.”
The meetings are designed to address the hacking incident involving the departments of State, Commerce, Finance and Homeland Security, said a person familiar with the case.
– With the help of Chris Strohm
(Updates with NSC statement in fourth paragraph.)