The Russian Embassy in the United States responded to attempts by the American media to accuse Russian hackers of the previous breach of the US Treasury Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The corresponding post was published on the embassy's Facebook page.
The embassy called the attempts to accuse Russia of hacker attacks groundless and stated that such attacks in the information space contradict the principles of the country's foreign policy, its national interests and understanding of how relations between states are built. “Russia does not conduct” offensive “operations in a virtual environment,” the message says.
The embassy also indicated that Russia is actively promoting bilateral and multilateral agreements on cyber security, and recalled President Vladimir Putin's initiative on a comprehensive program of measures to restore Russian-American cooperation in the field of international information security. However, Moscow never received a response from Washington both on this issue and on other proposals to build a constructive and equal dialogue between the parties, the diplomatic mission concluded.
Earlier, Reuters, citing sources familiar with the situation, reported that a group of hackers, backed by a foreign government, hacked into the system of the US Treasury and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and managed to steal their data. The scale of the hacking turned out to be so serious that on Saturday, December 12, a meeting of the US National Security Council was held at the White House.
Later, The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that the attack was allegedly carried out by a group of hackers APT29 (Cozy Bear), which allegedly works for the Russian authorities. The information to which access was obtained is not reported, nor is there any evidence of the involvement of Russian hackers in this cyber attack.
