Russian hackers are being accused of carrying out the biggest cyber-raid against the US for more than five years, targeting federal government networks in a sophisticated attack, according to American officials and sources.
The hackers, linked to Russian spy agencies, were able to monitor internal emails at the US Treasury and Department of Commerce and may have compromised other bodies, in what is being described as a highly sophisticated state-level attack.
Security agencies in the UK and elsewhere were also scrambling to assess the impact on their systems – while the revelation was deemed so grave it led to a national security council meeting at the White House over the weekend.
On Monday, the US national security council said it was working closely with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) “to coordinate a swift and effective whole-of-government recovery and response to the recent compromise.”
The US has not formally named the country it believes is responsible, but multiple sources blamed Moscow. The Washington Post specifically cited a well-known Russian hacking group – known as Cozy Bear or APT 29 – linked to the country’s FSB and SVR spy agencies.
Earlier this year Cozy Bear was accused by the UK, US and Canada of trying to steal coronavirus vaccine secrets from western researchers; the group has been previously accused of trying to hack into White House and Democratic party systems in 2014 and 2015.
The Russian foreign ministry described the allegations as “another unfounded attempt” by the US media to blame Russia for ..
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