POMPEO ACCUSES RUSSIA OF MASSIVE CYBER ATTACK

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia was likely behind the massive cyberattack on multiple government agencies and organisations, according to a Euronews report.

"We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity," Pompeo said on a conservative talk radio show, stating that they were still "unpacking" what it was.

He called it a "significant effort" to use software to embed code inside US government systems, but did not provide other details.

US President Donald Trump has been silent on the hack which officials have said poses a "grave risk" to the country.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said this was "a patient, well-resourced, and focused adversary that has sustained long duration activity on victim networks."

What is known about the cyber attack

It was revealed last week that attackers had installed malware onto a US firm SolarWinds' monitoring platform.

The platform could have been installed by up to 18,000 customers, SolarWinds said.

This widespread hack impacted multiple US government agencies, organisations and private companies and had been going on since at least March.

It was first revealed to the government by the cybersecurity company FireEye.

FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia wrote in a December 8 blog post that his company had been subject to a hack and that he had "concluded we are witnessing an attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities."

Microsoft's president Brad Smith, whose company is assisting in the response, said that the hack had affected at least 40 government agencies and other organisations.

At least 80% of these organisations were in the United States but there were victims in seven other countries: Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel and the UAE.

Experts told the Associated Press that rebuilding the networks and discovering what happened could take months.

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