Just to follow up on the story we’ve been telling you about, the news on the attack on U.S. government agencies, allegedly backed by Russia, is getting worse:
NEW statement from FBI, CISA and ODNI on the SolarWinds hack confirms government intrusions: "This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government" pic.twitter.com/ELxSl8v9Ow
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) December 17, 2020
It’s being called one of “the greatest intelligence failures of modern times”:
It now is clear that the broad Russian espionage attack on the United States government and private companies ranks among the greatest intelligence failures of modern times. https://t.co/lL0YEPNTzr
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) December 16, 2020
Thomas Bossert, the former Homeland Security Adviser to President Trump, wrote in an op-ed for the NYT today that “magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate”:
The US public is sick, our leaders distracted, and we are under cyberattack. This isn’t about SolarWinds anymore. It hasn’t been for months. The Russians are in our networks at a very fragile time. What are we going to do about it? My @nytimes OpEd https://t.co/MeeKNSzsNh
— Thomas P. Bossert (@TomBossert) December 17, 2020
And that “President Trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government, and perhaps a large number of major industries, compromised by the Russian government”:
Trump’s former homeland security adviser: “President Trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government, and perhaps a large number of major industries, compromised by the Russian government.”https://t.co/9MYrQCdKJ1
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) December 17, 2020
According to Bossert, “The Russians have had access to a number of important networks for 6 to 9 months” and “The access they now enjoy could be used for far more than spying”:
Trump's former homeland security adviser: "The magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate…The Russians have had access to a number of important networks for 6 to 9 months…The access they now enjoy could be used for far more than spying." https://t.co/ACCPVvCNZ7
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 17, 2020
The potential breadth of the attack is staggering:
“The number of organizations that downloaded the corrupted update could be as many as 18,000, most federal government unclassified networks and more than 425 Fortune 500 companies…it will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control https://t.co/XiSvRBrVVV
— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) December 17, 2020
It sounds like there’s no quick fix to it and Joe Biden will be dealing with it as soon as he takes office:
Also notable: Bossert says the NDAA Trump's threatened to veto is now a "must-sign piece of legislation" and urges Biden to begin planning to take charge of this crisis. "He has to assume that communications about this matter are being read by Russia." https://t.co/ACCPVvCNZ7
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 17, 2020
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Related:
THREAD: Dominion Voting Systems does use a SolarWinds product, but reportedly not the one that was hacked https://t.co/32uFnbqA7U
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 15, 2020
