Security News > 2020 > March > Barr: FBI Probing If Foreign Gov't Behind HHS Cyber Incident
Attorney General William Barr vowed in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that there would be swift and severe action if a foreign government is behind disinformation campaigns aimed at spreading fear in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic or a denial of service attack on the networks of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Barr told the AP the federal government would take action against anyone who was trying to take advantage of the crisis or against foreign governments that could be trying to spread misinformation and stoke fear or slow down the U.S. response to the virus.
"When you're dealing with something like a denial of service attack on HHS during a pandemic, that's a very grave action for another country to take," Barr said.
On Monday, Barr directed U.S. attorneys across the U.S. to prioritize prosecuting all "Criminal conduct related to the current pandemic." In a memo, he warned that the Justice Department had seen reports of people selling fake cures for the coronavirus, phishing emails posing as official notices from the CDC and the World Health Organization and malware inserted in apps designed to track the spread of the virus.
The worldwide outbreak has sickened more than 180,000 people and left more than 7,000 people dead. In the United States, there have been more than 4,000 confirmed cases and scores of deaths.