Pompeo accuses Russia of being behind major cyber attack

SANAA, Dec. 19 (YPA) –  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed on Friday that Russia was “clearly” behind a massive cyberattack executed earlier this week that breached several US government agencies.

“There was a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of US government systems,” Pompeo told The Mark Levin Show on Friday.

“This was a very significant effort, and I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity.”

Pompeo on Monday referred to Moscow’s involvement in the attacks, saying the Russian government had made repeated attempts to infiltrate US government networks.

Microsoft said late Thursday that it had notified more than 40 customers hit by the malware, which security experts say could allow attackers unfettered network access to key government systems and electric power grids and other utilities.

Security analysts have said the attacks pose threats to national security by infiltrating key government systems, while also creating risks for controls of key infrastructure systems such as electric power grids and other utilities.

E.M