Ex-DHS adviser under Trump calls for urgent action to address suspected Russian cyberattack
“The remediation effort alone will be staggering,” he writes, adding that “entire new networks need to be built — and isolated from compromised networks.”
At least three US government agencies — the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture and Commerce — have been compromised in the hack, along with private-sector companies in the consulting, technology, telecom and energy industries.
While the exact scope and scale of the hack is still being determined, it is already becoming clear that this marks one of the most significant breaches of the US government in years.
Trump himself has yet to acknowledge the hack, choosing instead to continue publicly focusing on spreading disinformation about the 2020 election and trying to overturn the results. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that the Trump administration is “taking a hard look” at the data breach “and obviously take any sort of cyber hacks very seriously.”
In his op-ed Wednesday, Bossert said the US and its allies should “publicly and formally attribute responsibility for these hacks.”
“If it is Russia, President Trump must make it clear to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin that these actions are unacceptable,” he wrote. The Russian embassy in Washington has forcefully denied any involvement.
He directly called on Trump to “get past his grievances about the election and govern for the remainder of his term. This moment requires unity, purpose and discipline. An intrusion so brazen and of this size and scope cannot be tolerated by any sovereign nation,” he said.
President-elect Joe Biden, meanwhile, needs to begin planning to “take charge of this crisis” and that Biden and Trump’s teams “must find a way to cooperate.”
“President Trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government, and perhaps a large number of major industries, compromised by the Russian government,” Bossert wrote. “He must use whatever leverage he can muster to protect the United States and severely punish the Russians.”
The US is “sick, distracted, and now under cyberattack” and “leadership is essential,” he wrote.
CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Vivian Salama, Alex Marquardt and Brian Fung contributed to this report.
