Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explicitly blamed Russia for the SolarWinds hack that compromised numerous federal agencies and U.S. corporations, making him the first U.S. official to publicly do so.
“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,” Mr. Pompeo said in a Friday night interview with radio host Mark Levin.
U.S. officials have privately said they suspect Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known by the initials SVR, was behind the breaches, but none had publicly pointed the finger at Moscow.
Russia has denied responsibility.
The hacks, which are ongoing, have hit at least six Cabinet-level departments, including the Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy and Homeland Security departments, as well as the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the Health and Human Services Department. It also has affected an unknown number of SolarWinds Inc. ’s thousands of other customers.
