Moscow | The Kremlin on Monday denied being at the origin of the wave of sophisticated cyber attacks targeting federal services and businesses in the United States, denouncing the accusations pointing to Russia as “unfounded” and falling under “Russophobia”.
These cyber attacks “have nothing to do with us because Russia is not involved in these attacks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“All the accusations of Russian involvement are absolutely unfounded and are part of the continuity of blind Russophobia, which we see in every incident,” he added.
State Department chief Mike Pompeo pointed the finger at Moscow, but President Donald Trump downplayed Russia’s role.
According to the American computer security group FireEye, itself the victim of cyber attacks last week, governments and companies in the consulting, tech and energy sectors were targeted in the spring of 2020 in North America, in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security, the departments of the Treasury and Commerce and several federal agencies have been affected, according to press reports.
Hackers have infiltrated the computer systems of these various entities, taking advantage of an update of surveillance software developed by the SolarWinds company and used by tens of thousands of companies and administrations around the world.
Several American media have seen in these attacks the mark of a Russian group of hackers attached to the Russian military intelligence.
Russia has been accused on several occasions in recent years of large-scale cyber attacks around the world. Moscow has always denied these accusations.