Massive espionage attack reportedly targets US Departments of Defense, State

The US Defense and State departments have reportedly been hacked as part of an alleged espionage attack.

According to a New York Times report, other agencies were also targeted as part of the attack on IT company SolarWinds, an organization based in Austin, Texas.

“For operational security reasons the DoD will not comment on specific mitigation measures or specify systems that may have been impacted,” Defense Department spokesperson Russell Goemaere said in a statement to The Hill. “The DoD is aware of the reports and is currently assessing the impact.”

US top cyber-security firm FireEye says hacked by foreign state

US cyber-security firm FireEye says it was attacked by a foreign government.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo baselessly pointed the finger at Moscow, claiming that the incident was a “consistent effort by the Russians to try to get into American servers, not only those of government agencies but of businesses.”

“We see this even more strongly from the Chinese Communist Party, from the North Koreans as well,” Pompeo said  during an interview with Breitbart News Radio on SiriusXM Patriot. “It’s an ongoing battle, an ongoing struggle to keep our systems safe, and I’m very confident the United States government will keep our classified information out of the hands of these bad actors.”

Hackers target US Homeland Security, thousands of businesses

The US Department of Homeland Security and thousands of businesses have been targeted by a sweeping hacking campaign that officials suspect was directed by the Russian government.

The US National Security Council (NSC) has mentioned efforts underway to tackle the repercussions of the hack.

“A Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) has been established to ensure continued unity of effort across the United States government in response to a significant cyber incident,” NSC spokesperson John Ullyot said in a statement. “The UCG process facilitates continuous and comprehensive coordination for whole-of-government efforts to identify, mitigate, remediate, and respond to this incident… The highly-trained and experienced professionals across the government are working diligently on this matter.”

The Treasury Department and a Commerce Department agency have also been targeted, according to reports.

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