WASHINGTON (AP) –
The Justice Department revealed Wednesday that it was among the federal agencies harmed by a massive violation of government networks that American officials have related to Russia.
The extent of the damage was unclear. The department said 3% of its Microsoft Office 365 email accounts were potentially affected, but did not say who those accounts belonged to. There are no indications that classified systems will be affected, the agency said.
The department said it detected on December 24 “hitherto unknown malicious activity” related to the broader intrusions of federal agencies revealed earlier this month, according to a statement from spokesman Marc Raimondi.
The statement came a day after federal police and intelligence agencies formally implicated Russia in the intrusions, which officials said were part of an alleged intelligence gathering operation. President Donald Trump had previously raised without evidence the idea that China could be to blame.
The hacking campaign was of extraordinary magnitude, as the intruders had entered through government agencies, defense contractors and telecommunications companies for months at the time the rape was discovered. Experts say this gave foreign agents enough time to collect data that could be very detrimental to U.S. national security, although the extent of the violations and what information was sought is unknown.
An estimated 18,000 organizations were affected by malicious code used by the popular network management software of an Austin, Texas company called SolarWinds. However, of these customers, “a much smaller number have been compromised by monitoring activity in their systems,” according to the statement, which notes that so far less than ten government agencies have been identified. federal belonging to this category.