US intel agencies say group behind recent government hack ‘likely Russian in origin’

Washington CNN — US intelligence and law enforcement agencies investigating the massive hacking campaign targeting American government agencies and private sector companies issued a joint statement Tuesday saying the group responsible “likely originated in Russia” and the attack is believed to be an act of espionage rather than cyber warfare, as some lawmakers have suggested. In short, the statement issued by the Cyber Unified Coordination Group clearly acknowledges what US officials and experts have suspected since the data breach was first disclosed last month: the Advanced Persistent Threat actor responsible is “likely Russian in origin.” The Cyber Unified Coordination Group, which consists of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Agency, began meeting twice daily since the government was informed about the hack, as it worked to assess the extent of the damage and the possible culprits responsible for the attack. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, applauded the statement Tuesday but said he hopes to see more concrete steps taken to address the threat and “a very stern warning that any misuse of compromised networks to produce destructive or harmful effects.” “I’m glad we’re finally getting at least a tentative attribution from the Administration, although over three weeks after revelation of an intrusion this significant, I would hope that we will begin to see something more definitive, along with a more public pronouncement of US policy towards indiscriminate supply chain infiltrations of this sort in the future,” he said in a statement to CNN. We are taking every necessary step to understand the full scope of this incident & respond accordingly.” US allies that make up the intelligence sharing collective known as “Five Eyes” were notified ahead of time that Tuesday’s statement was coming, according to two sources familiar with the outreach.