Robert O’Brien arrived in the United States on Tuesday afternoon.
Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has soon returned from a trip to the Middle East and Europe to deal with hacking by U.S. government agencies, according to a National Security Council spokesman.
O’Brien had planned to return to Washington on Saturday, but only visited Israel and France before canceling stops in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, a person familiar with the matter said. He returned to the United States on Tuesday afternoon.
According to another person familiar with the matter, U.S. government agencies were attacked as part of a global campaign orchestrated by Russian government-linked hackers. Hackers were reported to have installed a malicious vulnerability in Texas-based software SolarWinds Corp. Among its customers are major government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
“Ambassador O’Brien is once again addressing the piracy incident,” National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said. “It holds NSC meetings tonight and tomorrow morning and will convene a high-level inter-agency meeting this week.”
The meetings are aimed at addressing the hacking incident involving the departments of State, Commerce, Finance and Homeland Security, according to a person familiar with the matter.
– With the assistance of Chris Strohm
(Updates with the NSC statement in the fourth paragraph.)