Pompeo says Russia “clearly behind” massive cyberattack

“This was a very significant effort, and I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,” Pompeo said during several TV interviews on Friday night. “There was a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of US government systems,” he said, becoming the first US official to accuse Russia.

Microsoft said that it had notified more than 40 customers hit by the malware, which security experts say could allow attackers unfettered network access to key government systems and electric power grids and other utilities. Roughly 80 percent of the affected customers were located in the United States, with victims also found in Belgium, Britain, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.