Hacking ‘Likely’ Came From Russia, U.S. Says in Belated Official Statement on
Major Intrusion
The operation was underway for more than a month after it was uncovered,
according to four government agencies that described the hacking as an
intelligence-gathering effort.
By David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes
• Jan. 5, 2021, 4:05 p.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/russia-hack-trump-biden.html
American intelligence agencies formally named Russia as the “likely” source of
the broad hacking of the United States government and private companies, and
declared that the operation was “ongoing” nearly a month after it was
discovered.
The statement — jointly issued by four government agencies — was a clear rebuke
of President Trump’s effort, in posts on Twitter, to suggest that China was
behind the hacking. But inside the intelligence agencies, there are few doubts
that Russia is responsible. There has been no information gathered pointing to
China, according to people briefed on the material.
The statement also underscored the degree to which American intelligence
agencies are still playing catch-up, after being alerted in mid-December by
private security firms to the broadest and deepest penetration of American
computer networks in modern times.
The carefully worded statement is as definitive a blaming of Russia as the
United States has made, and echoed the early statements in 2016 about the
Kremlin’s interference in the election. It took months in that case to link the
attacks back to orders given by President Vladimir V. Putin.
Mr. Putin and his lead intelligence agency, the S.V.R., were not mentioned in
the statement issued Tuesday. But the broad conclusion that Russia was the
likely source of the penetration of American systems had already been announced
by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the attorney general at the time, William
P. Barr.
Still, a formal conclusion sets the stage for retaliation, mostly likely by
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who, unlike Mr. Trump, has declared that
whoever was behind the operation would pay a steep price.
The statement said that a still unidentified cyberactor, “likely Russian in
origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing
cybercompromises of both government and nongovernmental networks.”
It added: “At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an
intelligence gathering effort. We are taking all necessary steps to understand
the full scope of this campaign and respond accordingly.”
The characterization of the intrusion as an “intelligence gathering effort” was
significant because it indicates there is no indication yet that the Russians
had planted malware in American systems that is intended to cause disruptions
to power grids or alter data in government or private databases.
But in interviews over the past two weeks, both government and private
officials have said they are still discovering the scope of the intrusions, and
it may take months to figure out whether Russia or others may make more
malicious use of “back doors” they placed in the systems.
The statement by the office of the director of national intelligence, the
National Security Agency, the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security
appeared very similar in wording to one the White House was preparing to
release nearly two weeks ago. But it was pulled back after Mr. Trump erupted at
his intelligence briefers and said they had no evidence to link the action to
Russia.
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