“I am unable to say way more as we’re nonetheless unpacking exactly what it’s, and I am certain a few of it would stay categorized,” he added.
As a substitute of condemning the assault, or Russia, Trump wrote that he had been “absolutely briefed and all the things is effectively beneath management” — regardless of officers in his administration having mentioned this week that the cyberattack “poses a grave threat” to networks throughout each the private and non-private sector.
At the least half a dozen federal businesses are actually identified to have been focused within the breach, together with the Division of Homeland Safety’s cyber arm and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Power and State. Investigators are nonetheless attempting to find out what, if any, authorities information could have been accessed or stolen within the hack.
“Suffice it to say, there was a major effort to make use of a bit of third-party software program to primarily embed code within US authorities programs and it now seems programs of personal firms and corporations and governments the world over as effectively,” Pompeo mentioned.
Trump had remained silent on the hack for many of the week. The White Home mentioned Friday the President was being briefed and “working very arduous” in coping with it.
Requested Friday about Trump’s silence on the matter, Pompeo famous there was work occurring behind the scenes.
“There are lots of issues that you just’d very a lot like to say, ‘Boy, I will name that out,’ however a wiser plan of action to guard the American individuals is to calmly go about what you are promoting and defend freedom,” he mentioned.
The Russian embassy in Washington has denied involvement within the hack.
However Moscow has been linked to a number of current breaches, together with the 2016 hacking of Democratic officers throughout the US presidential election.
CNN beforehand reported {that a} Russian-affiliated group often called APT29 was behind the assault on FireEye.
That very same night, FireEye recognized the supply of its personal intrusion as malware hidden in its software program updates printed by the software program vendor SolarWinds, which is utilized by numerous federal civilian businesses for community administration.
As many as 18,000 SolarWinds clients, together with US authorities businesses and Fortune 500 firms, had been despatched the updates containing the malware.
The headline and story have been up to date to replicate President Donald Trump’s tweets on the cyberattack.
CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Brian Fung, Kaitlan Collins, Alex Marquardt and Jason Hoffman contributed to this report.