Former National Security Adviser John Bolton said reports of unauthorized computer breaches at several U.S. federal government agencies — including the Pentagon — show that if Russia is confirmed to be the culprit, then other foreign governments are aware they also can hack American systems.
“What else do you have to know at this point to know that the Russians can get into all these different systems?” Bolton said Friday on MSNBC. “And, if they can, so can others.”
Bolton’s comments came in response to reports, which initially surfaced on Sunday, that the Department of Homeland Security and thousands of U.S. businesses were reacting to information that their systems had been breached in what officials believed was a sophisticated attack.
The departments of treasury, commerce and defense, as well as the National Nuclear Security Agency and three states also were compromised, according to the reports.
The cyberattack reportedly was accomplished through software distributed by technology company SolarWinds, which said 18,000 of its customers had downloaded a compromised update that allowed hackers to spy unnoticed on businesses and agencies for almost nine months. The United States issued an emergency warning on Sunday ordering government users to disconnect SolarWinds software which it said had been compromised by "malicious actors."
Russia has denied involvement.
“The Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans, others have focused on cyber because it is an asymmetric attack against the United States,” Bolton added. “They can't match us in many other areas, so they have pinpointed an area of real vulnerability and gone after it.
“This is a real test of the United States.I just want to say again, the fact the Russians, if that's who it was, can do it should tell us that now everybody else understands they can do it too.”
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