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‘It may be China’: Trump undercuts Pompeo’s assertion on cyberattack
The outgoing president also suggested that the cyberattack could have also targeted the voting machines during the presidential polls, claiming that he won the election.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said the cyberattacks on key government agencies are “far greater” in the “Fake News Media” than in reality. Breaking his silence for the first time on the major cybersecurity breach, Trump said he has been fully briefed on the matter and everything is “under control”. The US president also tried to undercut the assertions of top government officials, including State Secretary Mike Pompeo, who had suggested that Russia was behind the massive cyberattack.
“Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!),” Trump tweeted.
The outgoing president also suggested that the cyberattack could have also targeted the voting machines during the presidential polls, claiming that he won the election. “There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA,” he added. The tweet was promptly flagged by the micro-blogging site with the message, “Multiple sources called this election differently.”
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Earlier this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had revealed about the cyberattack which has affected networks within the federal government. While Pompeo didn’t reveal details about the alleged Russian links, he blamed Moscow for what is being described as the worst-even cyberattack on the government.
“We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,” Pompeo said on Friday.
In a blog post published on Thursday, Microsoft president Brad Smith described the breach as an attack on the United States and its government and other critical institutions, including security firms. He said there are broader ramifications since the attackers used a technique that has put at risk the technology supply chain for the broader economy.
A popular software called Orion, developed by the company SolarWinds, was compromised by a malicious code snuck into one of its upgrades in as early as March. The software provides network-monitoring services to a host of companies and government agencies around the world. The malware granted hackers remote access to networks of many of its targets.
“The installation of this malware created an opportunity for the attackers to follow up and pick and choose from among these customers the organizations they wanted to further attack,” wrote Smith.
