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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 15 December 2020

Biden to say 'abuse of power' can't stop peaceful transition

College approval, normally who did." torate worn by the pandemic
a routine, mundane event — in their attempt to nudge Re-
to stay on the offensive. That "There is urgent work in publicans to cooperate. Mike
means declaring the elec- front of all of us. Getting the Donilon, a senior adviser
tion settled and claiming a pandemic under control to to Biden, said the Ameri-
mandate to begin governing, getting the nation vaccinated can electorate is looking for
even if might not stop Trump against this virus," Biden will Democrats and Republicans
from disputing the results or say. "Delivering immediate to get in sync.
most of his party from back- economic help so badly need-
ing him up. ed by so many Americans "The agenda that the presi-
who are hurting today — and dent-elect is putting forward
"If anyone didn't know it be- then building our economy is very much at the forefront
fore, we know it now. What back better than ever." of what people want in their
beats deep in the hearts of the lives," Donilon said. "So, I
American people is this: De- Whether his message of unity think the case is going to be
mocracy," Biden plans to say will have any effect remains that it's going to be in the in-
Joe Biden is ready to de- term interests (and the coun- in his speech, according to to be seen. Republicans have terest of the country, it's go-
clare that "not even an try's), accept Trump's defeat excerpts released by his cam- mostly continued to back ing to be in their own self-
abuse of power" can stop and focus their attention on paign. "In America, politi- Trump and his unsubstanti- interest to get on board and
a peaceful transition of fighting the coronavirus pan- cians don't take power — the ated claims of a rigged elec- not to get in the way."
power in the U.S. after demic and staving off eco- people grant it to them." tion and, even once Biden
last month's election — a nomic tumult. takes power, are unlikely to In making the case for a man-
swipe at President Donald He will add, "The flame of give him any of the tradition- date, Biden's team points to
Trump's refusal to accept After garnering a record 82 democracy was lit in this na- al honeymoon period. Biden the president-elect retaking
defeat and at the top Re- million-plus votes, building tion a long time ago. And we faces a narrowly divided Sen- Rust Belt states that helped
publicans who have con- out important parts of his now know that nothing — ate — next month's runoff spring Trump to the White
tinued to stand by him. new administration and pre- not even a pandemic —or an elections in Georgia will de- House four years ago as well
paring a move to the White abuse of power — can extin- cide which party controls the as wins in Arizona and Geor-
The president-elect is deliv- House that's now barely a guish that flame." chamber — and a thinned gia — firsts for a Democratic
ering a prime time speech month away, Biden shouldn't Democratic majority in the presidential candidate since
Monday, after the Electoral be lacking for political Biden is also planning to re- House as the GOP picked up the 1990s. Biden also won
College formally votes to de- strength. peat his promises to be "a seats even as Trump lost. the popular vote by more
clare him president. Biden's president for all Americans" than 7 million people, pow-
top aides have already made And yet he and his team are who will "work just as hard But aides are pointing to the ered by strong showings with
clear they hope Republicans seizing the news of the mo- for those of you who didn't president-elect's strong ap- women, people of color and
will consider their own long- ment — formal Electoral vote for me, as I will for those proval numbers and an elec- independents.

US agencies, companies secure networks after huge hack

Government agencies and private companies foreign governments and major corporations were U.S. officials have declined to say who they believe
rushed Monday to secure their computer net- also compromised. is responsible. National Security Council spokes-
works following the disclosure of a sophisti- U.S. authorities acknowledged that federal agen- man John Ullyot said Monday only that the Trump
cated and long-running cyber-espionage in- cies were part of the breach on Sunday, providing administration was working with the CISA, U.S.
trusion that experts said almost certainly was few details. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure intelligence agencies, the FBI and government
carried out by a foreign state. Security Agency, known as CISA, said in an unusu- departments that were affected to coordinate a re-
al directive that the widely used network software sponse to whoever was behind it.
It was not yet clear who was responsible for the SolarWinds had been compromised and should be
intrusion, though it was reportedly conducted removed from any system using it. Microsoft cybersecurity researchers on Monday
by Russia, and the extent of the damage is not tied the hacks to "nation-state activity at significant
yet known. The potential threat was significant The national cybersecurity agencies of Britain and scale," aimed at both government and the private
enough that the Department of Homeland Secu- Ireland issued similar alerts. sector.
rity's cybersecurity unit directed all federal agen- "It's obviously incredibly significant and wide-
cies to remove compromised network manage- SolarWinds is used by hundreds of thousands of spread," said Chris Painter, who coordinated cyber-
ment software and thousands of companies were organizations around the world, including most policy at the State Department during the Obama
expected to do the same. Fortune 500 companies and multiple U.S. feder- administration. "How much was compromised?
al agencies. The perpetrators were able to embed How much was exfiltrated? There are lots of open
What was striking about the operation was its po- malware in a security update issued by the compa- questions now."
tential scope as well as the manner in which the ny, based in Austin, Texas. Once inside, they could
perpetrators managed to pierce cyber defenses and impersonate system administrators and have total Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday
gain access to email and internal files at the Trea- access to the infected networks, experts said. that Russia had "nothing to do with" the hack.
sury and Commerce departments and potentially
elsewhere. It was stark evidence of the vulnerability "Quite honestly, my heart sank when I saw some "Once again, I can reject these accusations," Peskov
of even supposedly secure government networks, of the details, just the amount of information they told reporters. "If for many months the Americans
even after well-known previous attacks. could potentially have if they are reading every- couldn't do anything about it, then, probably, one
one's emails and they are accessing sensitive files shouldn't unfoundedly blame the Russians for ev-
"It's a reminder that offense is easier than defense within places like Treasury or Commerce," said erything."
and we still have a lot of work to do," said Suzanne Ben Johnson, a former National Security Agency
Spaulding, a former U.S. cybersecurity official cyber-engineer who is now chief technology offi-
who is now a senior adviser to the Center for Stra- cer of software security firm Obsidian.
tegic and International Studies.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources,
The campaign came to light when a prominent said the attack was carried out by Russian govern-
cybersecurity firm, FireEye, learned it had been ment hackers who go by the nicknames APT29 or
breached. FireEye would not say who it suspect- Cozy Bear and are part of that nation's foreign in-
ed, though many experts quickly suspected Rus- telligence service.
sia given the level of skill involved, and alerted that