United States: government victim of cyberattacks, Russia accused

The new war. Since Sunday, the American press has claimed that the American government has been the victim of a cyberattack. Information just confirmed by the White House, indicating that at least two departments have been targeted by pirates linked to the Russian state.

“We are working closely with our partner agencies regarding activities recently discovered on government networks” and “(provide) technical assistance to the entities concerned,” confirmed a spokesperson for the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency (Cisa), which reports to the Ministry of Homeland Security.

He did not give any further details or indicate the scale of the attack. Russia is believed to be behind the attacks, carried out by the ATP29 group, which was also behind attacks on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, accused the Washington Post.

Long-term attack

Hackers have had access, sometimes for several months, to internal mail from the Treasury Department and the National Telecommunications Administration (NTIA), according to press reports published on Sunday.

“The US government is aware of this information and is taking all necessary steps to identify and resolve any potential issues related to this situation,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot said.

On Tuesday, it was the American computer security company FireEye, usually called to the rescue by customers during cyberattacks, which admitted to having itself been the object of a highly complex hack, of which it also suspects a State of being at the origin.

“Russia does not conduct offensive operations on the internet”

The Russian embassy in the United States has called the information in the US media “baseless” and has denied any involvement in the alleged attacks.

“Malicious activities in the information space are at odds with the principles of Russian foreign policy, national interests and our view of inter-state relations,” the embassy said in a statement on its official Facebook page .

“Russia does not conduct offensive operations on the Internet,” the statement added.