Dec. 22 (UPI) -- President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday called for the Trump administration to take official action in response to a widespread cyberattack on U.S. companies and federal agencies.
Biden delivered remarks from Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday declaring that the Trump administration should "make an official attribution" of who was behind the attack, which has been linked to Russia, and admonished President Donald Trump for not taking cybersecurity seriously.
"This assault happened on Donald Trump's watch when he wasn't watching," said Biden.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said the attack was "pretty clearly" linked to Russia, however, Trump undercut that message in a tweet in which he suggested China may have been behind the attack.
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Biden on Tuesday said the breach "certainly fits Russia's long history of reckless disruptive cyber-activities."
The president-elect went on to stress the severity of the attack on SolarWinds products, which are used by more than 300,000 customers, including more than 400 of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies, five branches of the U.S. military, and the Departments of Defense, State and Justice, as well as the office of the president.
"There's still so much we don't know, including the full scope of the breach or the extent of the damage it has caused. But we know this much: This attack constitutes a grave risk to our national security," said Biden.
Last week, Biden declared his administration will make cybersecurity a top priority and work to "disrupt and deter our adversaries" from launching cyberattacks after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned the scope of the attack was greater than initially thought.
He further called on the Trump administration to keep his transition team up to date on the attack, which he says they have failed to do so far.
"The Defense Department won't even brief us on many things," said Biden.
