Biden to Make Cybersecurity 'Top Priority,' After Russians Hacked US
President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday his incoming administration “will make cybersecurity a top priority at every level of government,” after Russian government-sponsored hackers breached several federal government agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Homeland Security. The House Homeland Security and Oversight committees launched an investigation into the breach, in which hackers penetrated federal cyber defenses via vulnerabilities in SolarWinds Orion software used for network management systems. DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency directed all agencies to disconnect the software.
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The incoming administration “will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office,” Biden said. “We will elevate cybersecurity as an imperative across the government, further strengthen partnerships with the private sector, and expand our investment in the infrastructure and people we need to defend against malicious cyber attacks.” His administration also will impose “substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, including in coordination with our allies and partners,” Biden said.
President Donald Trump hasn’t acknowledged the hack, but White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters this week the current administration is “taking a hard look” at the breach and takes "any sort of cyber hacks very seriously.”
“This latest cyber intrusion could have potentially devastating consequences for U.S. national security,” House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and other Democratic leaders wrote Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Christopher Wray and acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf: “It is imperative that our Committees receive the latest information.”
The committees plan a classified interagency briefing Friday. CISA warned the committees’ staff “that the perpetrator of this attack is highly sophisticated, and that it will take weeks, if not months, to determine the total number of agencies affected by the attack and the extent to which sensitive data and information may have been compromised,” leaders said in the letter. “According to one U.S. official, this incident ‘is probably going to be one of the most consequential cyberattacks.’” The office of the DNI, FBI and DHS didn’t comment.