Claim Russian Hackers Breached U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments

Dec. 14, 2020 (EIRNS)—On Dec. 13 the Justice Department reporters for the Washington Examiner, Jerry Dunleavy and Tyler Dyke, wrote an article based on “a report” that a “sophisticated hacking group backed by the Russian government had infiltrated the U.S. Treasury Department’s systems and also hacked the Commerce Department and other government agencies.”

That the FBI is investigating the attacks is reported, but not for how long the FBI may have been thus investigating without making this known. The FBI is supposed to be looking at the “Russian” hacking group APT29, also known as “Cozy Bear” as a potential perpetrator, the article continues. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity unit is also involved. Thus mere weeks after Christopher Krebs, who headed this DHS unit until fired by President Donald Trump, assured the nation that no hacker or fraudster had laid a finger on the “perfect, most secure election in history,” the media report “Russian” hacking of multiple government departments going on “since the spring” (Washington Post).

The Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed the incident, but did not suggest who was behind it, the Examiner wrote—but, as a result of the hack, the National Security Agency reportedly held a meeting at the White House on Dec. 13. The DHS Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed the incident in a statement.

Also on Dec. 13, Sputnik International reporter Ilya Tshkanov wrote, “The alleged hack comes following reports last week that FireEye, a major U.S. cyber security firm, had been attacked by a ‘nation with top-tier offensive capabilities,’ which reportedly removed its internal hacking tools.” The California-based FireEye provides hardware, software and services to hundreds of thousands of corporate and government clients. It also investigated the “Orion” software of another cyber firm, SolarWinds, and said that it was hacked.

Thus the anonymous source in the U.S. media for this “Russian hack,” like that for the infamous “DNC e-mails” affair of “Russiagate,” seems to be a cybersecurity company—then CrowdStrike, now FireEye.