Dept. of Health and Human Services hit by cyberattacks as they struggle to deal with coronavirus
As concerns about the coronavirus pandemic spread almost as quickly as the deadly virus itself, Americans find themselves grappling with the grim reality of the broken state of our federal government under Donald Trump. Our habitually ignorant president has botched the response to the virus from day one and continues to deny any responsibility for his own actions or those of his administration.
Now, it appears we have more than just incompetent leadership to contend with as we navigate this crisis. Bloomberg News’s Jennifer Jacobs reports that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was hit with a cyberattack last night by ann as yet unrevealed entity.
“Multiple incidents of hacking” involving launching “millions of hits over several hours” are said to have occurred with the apparent goal of slowing down the department’s computer systems as its employees struggle to grapple with the rapidly escalating consequences of the coronavirus spread.
Thankfully, the sinister attacks were unable to slow HHS’s systems in “any meaningful way.
The National Security Council sent out a tweet last night to counteract the spread of misinformation related to the hacking.
Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown. @CDCgov has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus
— NSC (@WHNSC) March 16, 2020
Roughly 3,500 Americans have been confirmed as infected by a coronavirus and that number is expected to skyrocket in the coming days as state and federal forces roll out increasingly drastic measures to curb the spread of the virus. The crippling of HHS or any other government entity involved in these measures could lead directly to the deaths of more Americans.
Whoever was behind these cyberattacks took aggressive, potentially fatal action against the people of the United States. Our government must discern the identities of the attackers and hold them accountable immediately. Donald Trump failed to adequately respond to the Russian interference in the 2016 election which emboldened them going into 2020. Such a mistake cannot be repeated in this case, regardless of who is behind it. This cannot go unanswered. Lives are at stake.
BREAKING scoop: HHS was hit by a cyber attack last night, sources tell me and @shiramstein. Multiple incidents of hacking.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 16, 2020
////BREAKING: U.S. Health and Human Services Department suffered a cyber-attack on its computer system Sunday night during the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The attack appears to have been intended to slow the agency’s systems down.
Story w @shiramstein soon
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 16, 2020
LATEST: U.S. officials have not yet confirmed who was behind the HHS hacking. The hack yesterday involved overloading the HHS servers with millions of hits over several hours, sources tell me and @shiramstein https://t.co/d12zNuAYXg
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 16, 2020
