US President-elect Joe Bidenhas criticized the Trump administration for failing to respond adequately to recent attacks on government networks that exploited SolarWinds.
The SolarWinds hack is “a breach cybersecurity against American companies as well as federal agencies,” Biden said.
“And there's still a lot we don't know, including the full picture of the breach or the extent of the damage it caused. But what we do know is that this attack poses a serious risk to our national security.“.
The president-elect also stressed that there is no evidence to prove that the situation is "under control," adding that the Ministry of Defense is not informing him "about many things.".
“"The Department of Defense is not informing us about a lot of things yet," said . "I don't know of anything that suggests the situation is under control."“.
Among other things, the new president said: “We cannot leave this unanswered. This means we must make it clear and publicly state who is responsible for the attack and take substantive measures.”
Trump downplayed the significance of the attack
Biden said the hackers behind the SolarWinds hack caught the Trump administration off guard.
“Foreign hackers have been working on this breach since at least late last year, creating the right conditions to compromise our systems and gather sensitive information from the technology industry, private businesses, and U.S. government agencies ,” Biden said.
Finally, the new president highlighted the Trump administration's failure to prioritize cybersecurity.
“Trump’s absurd downplaying of the seriousness of this attack” was also mentioned during the press conference.
Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have said that Russia is behind the breach (it fits with the attacks that Russia typically carries out).
However, Joe Biden argues that the Trump administration should take matters into its own hands: “He still has the responsibility to defend American interests as President for the next four weeks,” Biden said. “But rest assured that even if he doesn’t take it seriously, I will!”
According to the president-elect, cyber threats are some of the greatest threats of the 21st century. He stressed that once he officially takes office, he will prioritize cybersecurity and take appropriate measures to secure American systems, improve cyber defenses, and punish attackers.
“I believe we need to treat them with the same seriousness that we treat the threats of other unconventional weapons,” he added.
Dozens of Ministry of Finance email accounts hacked
U.S. Senator Ron Wydenalso revealed on Monday that were accounts email U.S. Treasury Department compromised by the hackers behind the SolarWinds attack.
Source: Bleeping Computer
