Cyber attack: Trump refuses to blame Russia
DONALD TRUMP yesterday con- tradicted his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by suggesting China, not Russia, was behind the cyber attack against the United States.
In his first comments on the breach, the US President scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the attack, despite the nation’s cybersecurity agency warning it posed a ‘grave’ risk to national security.
One US official described the hack as the worst case in American history, saying: ‘ They got into everything.’
But Mr Trump tweeted: ‘ The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control.’
He also claimed the media were ‘petrified’ of ‘discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).’ Mr Pompeo had said on Friday that Russia was ‘ pretty clearly’ behind the cyber attack. White House officials had even readied a statement accusing Russia of being ‘the main actor’ but were told to stand down at the last minute.
Officials are now trying to square the competing accounts. Mr Pompeo said the Government was still ‘unpacking’ the cyber attack and some of it would likely remain classified. ‘But suffice it to say there was a significant effort to use a piece of third- party software to essentially embed code inside of US Government systems and it now appears systems of private companies and companies and Governments across the world as well.
‘This was a very significant effort and I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,’ Mr Pompeo said in an interview with radio talk show host Mark Levin.
Mr Trump has repeatedly refused to blame Russia for well- documented hostilities, including its interference in the 2016 election to help him get elected.
It is not clear exactly what the hackers were seeking, but experts say it could include nuclear secrets and Covid- 19 vaccine- r el at ed research. Russia has said it had ‘nothing to do’ with the hacking.