US investigating network breaches at government agencies
WASHINGTON — Hackers broke into the networks of federal agencies including the Treasury and Commerce departments as U.S. government officials said Sunday that they were working to identify the scope of the breach and to fix the problem.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity arm are investigating.
The hacks were revealed days after a major cybersecurity firm disclosed that foreign government hackers had broken into its network and stolen the company’s own hacking tools. Many experts suspect Russia is responsible for the attack against FireEye, a major cybersecurity player whose customers include federal, state and local governments, and top global corporations.
There was no immediate connection between the attacks, and it wasn’t clear if Russia was also responsible for the hack of the Treasury Department, which was first reported by Reuters. National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot said in a statement that the government was “taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation.”
The government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said separately that it has been working with other agencies “regarding recently discovered activity on government networks. CISA is providing technical assistance to affected entities as they work to identify and mitigate any potential compromises.”
President Donald Trump last month fired the director of CISA, Chris Krebs, after Krebs vouched for the integrity of the presidential election and disputed Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud.
Federal government agencies have long been attractive targets for foreign hackers.
Germanylockdown: Most stores shut, tight limits on social contacts, no singing in church and a ban on fireworks sales: Germany is ratcheting up its pandemic restrictions in an effort to cut the high rate of coronavirus infections.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step up the country’s lockdown measures beginning Wednesday to Jan. 10 to stop the country’s exponential rise of COVID19 cases.
“We are forced to act and we’re acting,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.
Starting Wednesday, schools nationwide will be closed or switch to home schooling; most non-food stores will be shuttered, as will businesses such as hairdressers that have been allowed to remain open. Restaurant takeout will still be permitted, but no eating or drinking can take place on site.
With the exception of Christmas, the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to five, not including children under 14.
Religious services will be permitted, provided minimum distancing rules are in place and masks are worn, although singing will be banned.
Italy on Sunday eclipsed Britain to become the nation with the worst official coronavirus death toll in Europe.
Italy, where the continent’s pandemic began,
Italy’s death toll:
registered 484 COVID-19 deaths in one day, one of its lowest one-day death counts in about a month.
Still, those latest deaths pushed Italy’s official toll up to 64,520, while Britain’s stood at 64,267, according to Johns Hopkins University.
On Sunday, Italy reported another 17,938 coronavirus infections to raise its official tally to 1.84 million.
Japan’s daily coronavirus cases have exceeded 3,000 for the first time while the government delays stricter measures for fear of hurting the economy ahead of the holiday season.
The 3,030 new cases, including 621 in Tokyo, took Japan’s national tally to 177,287 with 2,562 deaths, the Health Ministry said Sunday.
Japan outbreak:
Algerian leader: Still recovering from COVID19, Algeria’s president reappeared Sunday after nearly two months out of the public eye, saying in a video
message that it may still be several more weeks before he is fit enough to return to his North African country.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 75, fell ill and then left for treatment in Germany in late October. Before his 4-minute, 54-second video Sunday, his last public appearance had been in mid-October. Saturday marked the anniversary of his first year in office.
Holocaust survivors:
An annual event bringing together Holocaust survivors from around the world to mark the start of Hanukkah was held online for the first time Sunday due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The event organized by the Jewish Claims Conference also paid tribute to those killed by the Nazis and raised awareness of anti-Semitism.
“The event included a livestream of speeches by survivors, their advocates, musical performances and the menorah lighting from
the Western Wall in Jerusalem and other locations around the world.
A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is now running for Manhattan borough president accused him of sexual harassment in a series of tweets Sunday, saying he made inappropriate comments about her appearance.
Lindsey Boylan tweeted that the Democratic governor “sexually harassed me for years. Many saw it, and watched.”
Asked for comment, Cuomo’s press secretary Caitlin Girouard said, “There is simply no truth to these claims.”
Boylan, 36, worked for the Cuomoadministration from March 2015 to October 2018.
She did not provide details of the alleged harassment.
Cuomo accusation:
Brexit talks: Teetering on the brink of a no-deal Brexit departure, Britain and the European Union stepped
back from the void Sunday and agreed to continue trade talks, although both downplayed the chances of success.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ditched a self- imposed deadline and promised to “go the extra mile” to clinch a post-Brexit trade agreement that would avert New Year’s chaos and costs for cross-border commerce.
“Wherethere’s life, there’s hope,” said Johnson, offering little else as rationale to keep on with talks that have struggled to make headway for most of the year and need to be finished before Jan. 1, when the transition period for Britain, which left the EU last January, ends.
With hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions in trade at stake, von der Leyen said after her phone call with Johnson that “weboth think it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile.”