The National Nuclear Security Administration and Energy Department, which safeguard the US stockpile of nuclear weapons, have had their networks hacked as part of the widespread cyber espionage attack on a number of federal agencies.

Politico reports that officials have begun coordinating notifications about the security breach to the relevant congressional oversight bodies.

Suspicious activity was identified in the networks of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation, and the Richland Field Office of the Department of Energy.

Officials with direct knowledge of the matter said hackers have been able to do more damage to the network at FERC, according to the report.

Federal authorities have expressed alarm about the intrusion into US and other computer systems around the world that officials suspect was carried out by Russian hackers.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned of a “grave” risk to government and private networks.

The Associated Press report an official as saying: “This is looking like it’s the worst hacking case in the history of America. They got into everything.”

If it can be proven that the hack originated in Russia, it could create a fresh foreign policy headache for the Trump administration in its final days in the White House.

Senator Mitt Romney ot Utah commented on the apparent silence from the Oval Office: “I think the White House needs to say something aggressive about what happened. This is almost as if you had a Russian bomber flying undetected over the country, including over the nation’s capital, and not to respond in a setting like that is really stunning.”

President-elect Joe Biden said in a statement: “I want to be clear: my administration will make cybersecurity a top priority at every level of government – and we will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office.”

He continued: “We will elevate cybersecurity as an imperative across the government, further strengthen partnerships with the private sector, and expand our investment in the infrastructure and people we need to defend against malicious cyber attacks.”

The president-elect added that he wants to go on the offensive to disrupt and deter such attacks in the future, saying that he would not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults.

(Source: Independent)