Hacking Damage Reaches Nuclear Weapon Facilities... Will US-Russia Conflict Escalate?

US Federal Government Hacking Damage Spreads Daily
Damage Scale Difficult to Confirm
Biden President-Elect "Cybersecurity Top Priority"
Trump Silent Despite Record Hacking

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] As the inauguration of the next U.S. administration under Joe Biden (photo) approaches, a series of hacking incidents targeting U.S. federal government agencies is rapidly escalating.

The U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command announced on its website that at 00:21 local time on the 4th, a Minuteman-3 equipped with three reentry vehicles was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The warheads were not installed.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

This time, hacking damage was detected even in agencies managing nuclear weapons. President-elect Biden has gone so far as to mention the need to prevent and disrupt adversaries. With the hacking suspected to be carried out by Russia, concerns are rising over the potential expansion of conflicts between the U.S. and Russia upon the new administration's launch.

On the 17th (local time), political media outlet Politico reported that hackers had infiltrated the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which manages the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

Politico cited sources saying that the Department of Energy and its NNSA subsidiary have obtained evidence that hackers accessed their systems. Politico described this hacking as part of a series of recent cyberattacks on multiple federal government agencies.

The affected agencies identified by Politico include the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory under the NNSA, and the Office of Secure Transportation. These laboratories conduct research on nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear power. The Office of Secure Transportation is responsible for transporting materials such as enriched uranium, essential for maintaining nuclear weapons stockpiles. Politico noted that the hacking of FERC could cause more extensive damage than attacks on other federal agencies.

Sheelin Hines, spokesperson for the Department of Energy, stated, "Hackers infiltrated general business systems but did not penetrate separately isolated security-related core systems." Nevertheless, it is expected to take weeks to identify the hacking routes and assess the damage. It is difficult to accurately determine the extent of damage beyond the already known agencies.

As the series of hacking attacks have affected key departments such as the State Department, Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security, and now nuclear weapons-related agencies, concerns are spreading within the U.S. Politico warned that the attack on the Department of Energy is the clearest sign that hackers attempted to penetrate the core networks of U.S. national security.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also issued an urgent hacking alert. CISA expressed concern that hackers are using a much wider range of tools and pose a serious threat to the U.S.

The hacking is suspected to have been carried out by hackers backed by the Russian government. The New York Times (NYT) reported that while U.S. authorities have not officially named the country behind the hacking, intelligence agencies have informed Congress that the hackers are linked to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). U.S. media outlets reported that hackers are believed to have infiltrated by embedding malicious code in software supplied by SolarWinds to government and corporate clients. The Associated Press reported that CISA ordered all federal agencies to remove SolarWinds software from their servers.

NYT also reported that Microsoft (MS) revealed that at least 40 government agencies and think tanks were infiltrated by Russian hackers. Most of these organizations are responsible for cybersecurity in the public and private sectors. MS stated that the damage to the private sector is more severe than to government agencies. Although there were reports that MS itself was hacked, MS denied these claims.

With hacking issues emerging during the U.S. government transition, President-elect Biden also voiced concerns. In a statement that day, he emphasized eradicating hacking upon taking office. Biden stressed, "From the moment we are inaugurated, responding to this intrusion will be our top priority."

He also pledged to increase investment in cyberattack defense, adding, "But it is not enough to defend well. We must deter and disrupt adversaries from launching significant attacks in the first place."

This suggests that U.S.-Russia relations could deteriorate again with the Biden administration's inauguration. NYT pointed out that President Donald Trump, in his final days in office, has remained silent on the most extensive hacking incident targeting U.S. federal government agencies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.