White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks to reporters. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
In Writing
UPDATED 1:20 PM PT – Saturday, March 13, 2021
White House officials dodged questions from the press corps about the recent Microsoft Exchange hacking. Prior to his next face-to-face meeting with Chinese officials, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confronted the press corps.
Journalists wasted no time on Thursday trying to pinpoint the administration’s position on the latest China-related scandal.
In early March, Microsoft alerted users that its email server, Exchange, had been compromised, allowing hackers to install malware to “facilitate long-term access” to various systems. In an effort to stop the attacks, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center analyzed the group’s victimology, tactics, and procedures.
With a high degree of confidence, Microsoft attributed the attacks to a group they have called Hafnium, the so-called “state-sponsored threat actor” operating in China. However, although the manufacturer of the same target system confirmed that they knew who their attacker was, Sullivan claimed the White House was not so safe.
“I am not in a position today to provide attribution, but I promise we will be in a position to attribute this attack at some point in the near future,” Sullivan noted. “And we will not hide the ball in this. We will introduce ourselves and say who we believe perpetrated the attack. “
A few days after the initial announcement, Microsoft reported that the attacks continued. Sullivan has not misunderstood it.
“It still continues in the sense that we are still gathering information,” he said. We are still trying to determine the scope and scale. It’s significant. “
In fact, current estimates show that more than 60,000 organizations were committed. In addition, security teams worked with Microsoft to reveal that the number of hacking attempts tripled every two to three hours.
A senior administration official told CNN that the “window to update exposed servers” was measured in hours, not days.
Despite the urgency, Sullivan stated at the end of the day that these are all servers in their own right.
“Ultimately, much of this is due to the fact that the private sector is taking the steps it needs to take to address it,” Sullivan said.