OREANDA-NEWS. As the newspaper Politico wrote on December 16, citing its sources, the US Presidential Assistant for National Security Robert O'Brien had to interrupt his official trip to European countries due to a massive cyberattack on American government agencies.

According to the newspaper, on December 15, the aide to the American president returned from Paris, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, to Washington to coordinate the government's measures in connection with the cyber attacks attributed to Russian hackers, which affected the State Department, the ministries of defense, trade, finance and internal security. The source noted that the change in travel plans and the refusal to visit Rome and London is a sign of how seriously the US authorities assess the situation. In the coming days, O'Brien will hold a series of meetings at the White House on this issue.

On December 15, the White House National Security Council announced the creation of a joint cybersecurity coordination group to "ensure a continuous unity of effort." Earlier, White House spokeswoman Kaylee McEnani said that the United States authorities are aware of the statements of a number of media outlets that a group of hackers, allegedly connected with Russia, hacked into the computer systems of several American ministries.

The alleged Russian cyberattacks were also reported by another agency, Reuters, on Monday. Its reporters claimed that a group of hackers, allegedly working for the Russian government, gained access to the computer systems of the US Department of Homeland Security as a result of a cyberattack on December 13. The ministry confirmed the fact of the break-in and said that they were reacting to the situation in cooperation with government and private structures.

Russia reacted on such accusations properly. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov on Monday rejected all US accusations of Russia's involvement in such computer attacks and called on the American government to stop "unfounded accusations of Russians which have no proofs."