Romney Warns Next Cyberattack Could Disrupt US Food and Water Supply
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) speaks alongside a bipartisan group of Democrat and Republican members of Congress as they announce a proposal for a Covid-19 relief bill on Capitol Hill on December 01, 2020 in Washington, DC. The roughly $908 billion proposal includes $288 billion in small business aid such as Paycheck Protection Program loans, $160 billion in state and local government relief and $180 billion to fund a $300 per week supplemental unemployment benefit through March, according to a draft framework. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said that the next cyberattack could do far more damage next time, such as cutting off the country's water and electricity supply.

Romney said the massive cyberattack discovered early this week should be met with a fast response without any delay.

Federal officials said that this could be the biggest hack on the U.S. government ever, as reported by the New York Daily News.

"I don't know if we have the capacity to do that in a way that would be of the same scale or even greater scale than what Russia has applied to us, but this is something we have to address as soon as possible," Romney said in a report.

Romney added that the hackers could cripple the country economically regarding water and electricity. The Republican senator said that they would not need rockets to take those things out.

Cyberattack

At least six U.S. government departments are reported to have been breached. These departments include energy, commerce, treasury, and state, as reported by The Guardian.

The National Nuclear Security Administration's networks were also breached, according to reports.

Microsoft said other private organizations were also affected, such as dozens of security and other technology firms and non-government organizations. The firm noted that mostly affected by the attack were in the U.S.

Microsoft also cited similar incidents in Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. The technological firm added that it is sure that the number and locations of victims will keep growing.

Meanwhile, the CEO of FireEye, Kevin Mandia, said that 18,000 organizations had malicious code in their networks. However, Mandia added that a total of 50 organizations had suffered major breaches, according to a BBC report.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pointing Russia as responsible for the cybersecurity breach. On the other hand, President Donald Trump expressed doubt on Russia's role. In a tweet on Saturday, he instead cited Chinese involvement.

Mandia said that the cyber attack was very consistent with what federal officials know about the work of Russia's foreign intelligence arm known as the SVR or External Intelligence Service.

Mandia said that he believes these are the folks they have responded to in the '90s and the early 2000s. Mandia added that Russian officials are continuing the game in cyberspace.

Through a company called SolarWinds, a breach became possible in updating for network-monitoring software by the said company. The update was infected with Russian malware. Upon downloading the said update, it let hackers bypass the security provided.

Officials claimed that breaches could potentially endanger American security in the coming years, according to a TribLive report.

Head of the House Representatives oversight committee, Stephen Lynch, said the hack was so prominent in scope that even the nation's cybersecurity experts do not have a real sense of the breadth of the breach itself.

A John Hopkin cyber-conflict expert, Thomas Rid, said it was likely the hackers had gathered a huge amount of data that "they themselves most likely don't know yet."

Related story: US Probes Network Hacks of Government Agencies