Donald Trump Allowed Russian Attack By Gutting Cybersecurity To Pay For Border Wall, Former FBI Deputy Says
Donald Trump has left the United States vulnerable to cyberattacks like the one allegedly carried out by Russia when he gutted cybersecurity funds to pay for his border wall, a former FBI deputy claims.
This week, officials revealed details about an alleged attack that has struck a number of government agencies and private organizations. As The Inquisitr reported, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a warning this week that federal, state, and local governments faced a “grave risk” from the cyber intrusion, as did private companies. The organization said the intrusion started in March and remains ongoing, with hackers targeting a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the U.S. Postal Service, and the National Institutes of Health.
Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI deputy director for counterintelligence, said that Trump left the government vulnerable to this cyberattack. Speaking on MSNBC, he said that Russians were able to find a weakness in American security and exploit it. Figliuzzi said that Trump’s actions to gut funding and change personnel may have created the weakness and paved the way for the attacks to take place.
“We have a president diverting money, billions of it, to build a wall, changing personnel at the top of the Pentagon and we’ve not heard word one about the plan or strategy to respond to this ongoing attack,” he said, via the Independent.
“It’s just like 9/11 we’re going to need congressional oversight and increase to figure out what in Heaven’s name has happened who is in charge where did the failures occur and we need oversight and coordination like never before.”
Trump has also come under fire for not yet speaking out against the alleged attack. Since news broke of the widespread intrusion, the White House had not yet spoken out to condemn Russia. This came in contrast to President-elect Joe Biden, who took what was seen as a veiled shot at the Trump administration by saying he would not allow such attacks to take place once he is in the White House.
“Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation,” he said, via Axios.
Trump has long been criticized by what many see as inappropriately close ties to the adversary and President Vladimir Putin, even appearing to side with Putin in his denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
