Biden Condemns Massive Cyber Hack While Trump Remains Silent
When President Donald Trump called for a meeting at the White House Wednesday amid reports of a massive data breach, top leaders of most agencies relevant to the cyber hack were absent. These include the head of the Justice Department, the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and national intelligence.
In a joint statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the FBI confirmed that they became aware of a massive and unceasing Cybersecurity campaign in the past several days. They revealed that the aforesaid campaign is targetting US government agencies using SolarWinds software.
After the meeting came to an end, Trump remained tight-lipped about the attack, which his administration's intelligence agencies failed to identify for months. While those agencies have finally mobilized to assess the damage, the president opted to remain mum on the matter, busy in his attempt to reverse the election results and pushing his dubious claims of widespread voter fraud.
The government revealed that the damage caused due to the attack could be more widespread than previously estimated and pose a grave risk to the federal government. This data breach, which has been unveiled in the concluding weeks of Trump's administration, represents a dramatic coda for a presidency surrounded by questions of deference to Russia and failures to improve relationships with President Vladimir Putin, CNN reported.
Trump has also ignored the latest surge in coronavirus related cases and appears to have rejected responsibility in his concluding days in office. President-elect Joe Biden, on the other hand, said he will not ignore the massive cyberattack and seems to have a strategy to minimize the spread of the deadly virus as soon as he takes office.
Biden issued a statement Thursday, strongly criticizing the notable hack of the software company SolarWinds that compromised a considerable number of US entities. In his statement, the incoming president said they have found in recent days what seems to be a massive cybersecurity breach that potentially affects a large number of victims, such as federal government entities and other US companies, Business Insider reported.
Biden assured that his administration would make cybersecurity a top priority at all levels of government. He said they would prioritize this breach as soon as he takes office and will also elevate cybersecurity as vitally crucial across the government and strengthen relations with the private sector. He also said his administration will expand their investment in the infrastructure and people they need to ensure safety against such malicious cyber attacks.