15 December 2020 - Washington, D.C. - Russian hackers working for the Kremlin are believed to be behind breaches of U.S. government computer systems at the departments of Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Security that may have lasted months before they were discovered, according to U.S. officials and media reports.
The hackers reportedly broke into the email systems at the government departments, but the full extent of the breach was not immediately clear as U.S. officials scrambled to make an assessment. There are concerns that hackers may have penetrated other government departments and perhaps many private companies as well.
The Commerce Department, the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security all acknowledged the intrusion in brief statements but provided no details.
"We can confirm there has been a breach in one of our bureaus," the Commerce Department said.
"We have been working closely with our agency partners regarding recently discovered activity on government networks," said NSC spokesman John Ullyot.
The U.S. government did not name Russia or any other actor as being responsible.
Reuters first reported the story on Sunday, and subsequent reports identified Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, as the most likely culprit.
Russia's SVR, the rough equivalent to the CIA in the U.S., was blamed for major hacks in 2014-15 that involved unclassified email systems at the White House, State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Russia on Monday denied any involvement in the latest reported breach.
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