The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a joint statement Wednesday afternoon in which they stated that the Russian cyber intrusion into US government systems is “ongoing.”
The statement announces the formation of a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG), designed to manage defensive and counterintrusion efforts between the organizations.
“Over the course of the past several days, the FBI, CISA, and ODNI have become aware of a significant and ongoing cybersecurity campaign. … [T]he FBI, CISA, and ODNI have formed a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) to coordinate a whole-of-government response to this significant cyber incident,” the statement reads. “The UCG is intended to unify the individual efforts of these agencies as they focus on their separate responsibilities. This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government.”
Lame duck president Donald Trump has yet to address the Russian attack, although he has repeatedly claimed that “no one is tougher on Russia than Trump.” So far, the Russian hacking has breached systems in the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security and the Food and Drug Administration.