The attack by “elite Russian hackers” who gained access to the computers of US federal agencies revealed the weaknesses in the cybersecurity of the American state. Former US counterintelligence director William Evanina spoke about the system vulnerabilities allegedly discovered by the Russians in a conversation with the Associated Press.
He explained that the hackers did not need to break into the system to get there one by one: instead, they infiltrated the supply system and ensured that spyware was found on computers in a number of government departments after the update. Evanina likened the existing system to a construction site with many subcontractors: for failure, it is enough that only one of them is unreliable.
“We will have to find a solution to this problem, not only for America as the largest economy in the world, but for the entire planet,” the agency quoted him as saying. According to Evanin, counterintelligence warned of the danger of this problem for many years, but neither the state nor private companies did not attach due importance to this.
On December 13, Reuters reported that Russian hackers allegedly carried out an attack on the US Department of Homeland Security and gained access to internal communications in the department. The attack was part of a campaign that also hacked into the systems of the US Treasury Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Moscow rejects accusations of hacker attacks on American departments and considers them unfounded.
