US says it may increase spending on cybersecurity due to hacker attack
US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas said that Joe Biden’s administration staff and lawmakers in the US Congress are “figuring out what additional funds could be spent on security”
US President Joe Biden’s administration officials are discussing with lawmakers in the US Congress the possibility of allocating additional funds for cybersecurity in light of the massive hacking attack on the country’s government agencies. US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas told CNN on Wednesday.
SolarWinds’ Orion software was hacked in March 2020. Hackers managed to inject a virus into the Orion update, which was then downloaded and used by thousands of SolarWinds customers, among them leading government agencies as well as more than 400 major US companies.
“Unfortunately, nothing spurs urgent and decisive action like an adverse event”, – said Mayorkas. – “The elaborate cyberattack on SolarWinds was just such an event,” he added. According to the head of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Biden administration officials and lawmakers in the US Congress are “figuring out what additional funds can be deployed to secure” US infrastructure and computer systems in light of what happened.”
In a joint statement issued in December 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Infrastructure and Cyber Security Agency said they had detected a serious attack on federal government computer networks. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo outlined the theory that Russia was allegedly involved in the attack. Meanwhile, then US President Donald Trump stressed that the media had exaggerated the extent of the incident.
US says it may increase spending on cybersecurity due to hacker attack