U.S. Treasury confirms hack as more blame Russia

[NFA] The U.S. secretary of the Treasury on Monday publicly confirmed that his department had been breached, saying: "Our unclassified systems did have some access." This report produced by Chris Dignam.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin publicly confirmed on Monday that his department had been breached - more than a week after Reuters first reported that multiple government agencies were penetrated in a massive hacking campaign suspected to have been carried out by Russia.

Speaking to CNBC, Mnuchin acknowledged that the hackers had breached the Treasury department's unclassified network but downplayed the severity of the intrusion, saying there was no damage or any large amounts of information displaced.

Mnuchin said he would not discuss the situation any further because there were still details that "we're not yet ready to disclose." U.S. government and cybersecurity experts in several countries are still struggling to get their arms around the massive breach, which began earlier this year when hackers subverted the Texas-based software company SolarWinds and used it as a springboard to jump deep into government and corporate networks.

Top U.S. officials - including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - have blamed Russia for the ambitious espionage operation, although some officials and experts have told Reuters it is too soon to know for sure who is behind the breach.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement and President Donald Trump, who has spent much of his one term in office defending Russia from various allegations of hacking and interference, downplayed the breach and raised the possibility that China might be involved.

BARR: "It certainly appears to be the Russians..." Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday became the latest Trump administration official to break with the outgoing president, telling a news conference that he agreed with Pompeo's assessment that Russia was responsible.