Published 13:01 IST, December 21st 2020
US cyberattack: Republican Senator blasts Trump, says he has 'blind spot for Russia'
As US federal agencies are impacted with major cyberattack and Trump downplayed the same, Republican Sen Romney said President has 'blind spot' for Russia.
As US federal agencies are rocked with the recent discovery of major cyberattack and President Donald Trump downplayed the breach, Republican Senator for Utah, Mitt Romney said Trump has a “blind spot for Russia” and called the large-scale hacks on organisations a “big wake-up call”. While talking to CNN, Romney said that because the US President has a ‘blind spot’ for Russia, the response he laid out in brief tweets on Saturday was ‘expected’ because Trump dismissed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s remarks of Russia being ‘clearly involved’ in the cyberattacks that posed ‘grave risk’.
In a televised interview, the Utah Republican said, “This is a big wake-up call for us and I think we're going to have to really rethink our military and national security readiness so when it comes to cyberspace because this is the warfare of the future and I hope that we get ourselves up to the capacity you would expect the strongest, greatest nation on Earth to have.”
In one of the latest blows to US President Donald Trump’s administration in its closing days, a dozen of federal agencies were crippled with a massive cyberattack which is reportedly described as the biggest breach in several years. Triggering speculation of Russian hackers’ involvement, US officials reportedly said that the hacks have been ongoing for several months allowing the ones who breached the websites to monitor as well as read US’ confidential emails.
US Cyberattack 'genuinely impacted' over 50 organisations
The US cyber-security firm that had identified the large-scale hacking of country’s several federal agencies has reportedly said that it “genuinely impacted” at least 50 organisations. As per the BBC report, the CEO of FireEye, Kevin Mandia said that even though 18,000 organisations had the malevolent code in their networks, it was 50 of them that had suffered major impact and security breaches. Some of the affected organisations include US Treasury and departments of homeland security, state and defence among others.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently spoke on the significant cyberattacks and blamed Russia for the same. Similar remarks were echoed by chairs of the Senate and House of Representatives’ intelligence committees. However, US President Donald Trump cast doubt on Russia’s role in two tweets on December 19 while hinting at China’s involvement.
Updated 12:59 IST, December 21st 2020