US President Donald Trump has contradicted his secretary of state and on Saturday suggested without evidence that China, not Russia, may be behind the cyberattack against the United States, and tried to minimise its impact.
In his first comments on the breach, Mr Trump scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the intrusions, which the nation’s cybersecurity agency has warned posed a “grave” risk to government and private networks.
“The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control,” Mr Trump tweeted.
He also claimed the media are “petrified” of “discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).”
There is no evidence to suggest that is the case.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Friday that Russia was “pretty clearly” behind the cyberattack against the United States.
Officials at the White House had been prepared to put out a statement Friday that accused Russia of being “the main actor” in the hack, but were told at the last minute to stand down, according to one official.
It is not clear whether Mr Pompeo got that message before his interview, but officials are now scrambling to figure out how to square the disparate accounts.
Mr Pompeo said the government was still “unpacking” the cyberattack and some of it would likely remain classified.
“But suffice it to say there was a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of US government systems and it now appears systems of private companies and companies and governments across the world as well.
“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,” he said in the interview with radio talk show host Mark Levin.
Throughout his presidency, Mr Trump has refused to blame Russia for well-documented hostilities, including its interference in the 2016 election to help him get elected.
Though Mr Pompeo was the first Trump administration official to publicly blame Russia for the attacks, cybersecurity experts and other US officials have been clear over the past week that the operation appears to be the work of Russia.
There has been no credible suggestion that any other country, including China, is responsible.
It is not clear exactly what the hackers were seeking, but experts say it could include nuclear secrets, blueprints for advanced weaponry, Covid-19 vaccine-related research and information for dossiers on government and industry leaders.
Russia has said it had “nothing to do” with the hacking.
While Trump downplayed the impact of the hacks, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has said it compromised federal agencies as well as “critical infrastructure”.
Homeland Security, the agency’s parent department, defines such infrastructure as any “vital” assets to the US or its economy, a broad category that could include power plants and financial institutions.
One US official, speaking on Thursday, described the hack as severe and extremely damaging.
“This is looking like it’s the worst hacking case in the history of America,” the official said. “They got into everything.”
