Romney says US should act quickly on Russian espionage scheme [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Republican Sen. Mitt Romney told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Russia “acted with impunity” for launching an extensive cyberattack against the US federal government.
• Romney said that Trump was blindsided on Russia, noting that security experts have already identified them as the infiltrator.
• Authorities warned that the attacks could compromise the country’s security in the future.

During his interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (UH.) said that Russia “acted with impunity” when it launched a massive cyberattack against the US as part of its global espionage scheme. The senator argued that the attack can hurt the country by blocking its water and electricity supply.

Believed to be the greatest hack in the federal government, Romney said that such enormous cyberattack should face a prompt and robust counteraction.

“I don’t know if we have the capacity to do that in a way that would be of the same scale or even greater scale than what Russia has applied to us, but this is something we have to address as soon as possible,” the GOP lawmaker said.

Romney said that Russia has “the capacity to cripple us economically” after targeting businesses. He also added that “they have the potential to also cripple us with regards to our water and electricity and so forth.”

Federal agencies that got infiltrated were the following: The Defense and Homeland Security Departments; the Energy Department and; the Treasury and Commerce Departments. State and local governments were also not spared from the attacks, as well as several prominent companies in the country.

The attack came through a network-monitoring software update by SolarWinds company, which was infected by Russian malware. Hackers can bypass through a security gap when users will proceed to the update.

As President Donald Trump speculated China as the potential infiltrator, his security aides said otherwise.

“We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians who were responsible,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

The 2012 GOP presidential nominee, who said that Trump has a “blind spot when it comes to Russia,” argued that experts already validated that Kremlin was the one behind the massive cyberattacks against the US government.

“The reality here is that the experts, the people who really understand how our systems work and how computers work and software and so forth, the thousands upon thousands at the CIA and the NSA and the Department of Defense, have determined that this came from Russia,” he said.

Officials have instructed government organizations to scan their networks for possible breach on servers and malware following reports the hacking incidents.

Authorities warned that the intrusion puts US security in jeopardy in the coming years.

Source: MSN.com