WASHINGTON: The secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday (December 21) publicly confirmed that his share was broken: more than a week after Reuters reported on the hack.
Speaking to CNBC, Steve Mnuchin acknowledged that the hackers had entered the Treasury’s non-sexual network but reduced the severity of the harassment.
“We don’t see any intrusion into our scheduled systems,” he said. “Our non-classified systems had some access. I would say the good news is that no damage was done, and we didn’t see much information that was sent out.”
Mnuchin said he wouldn’t go into more detail because details were still “not yet ready for publication.”
The Treasury did not immediately return a message seeking further information about Mnuchin’s comments.
U.S. governments and cybersecurity experts in several countries are still struggling to get their arms around the breach, which began earlier this year when hackers hacked and used the Texas-based software company SolarWinds. the company as a leapfrog to jump deep into government and corporate networks.
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Top U.S. officials – including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – have blamed Russia for its progressive spying activity, although some officials and experts have told Reuters that it is too early to know for sure who is behind the breach.
The Kremlin has denied involvement and President Donald Trump, who spent much of his term in office, is defending Russia from several allegations of arson and extortion. in, reducing disruption and building potential for China to engage.
Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday became the latest Trump loyalist to break with the outgoing president, telling a news conference he agreed with Pompeo estimated that Russia was to blame: “It seems to be the Russians but I’m not going to discuss that later.”