SOWING PANIC

Report: Foreign Actors Behind Recent Coronavirus Cyber Attacks

Officials reportedly said a recent attack on HHS and a widespread text message were the work of outsiders.

Officials told ABC News that two recent cyber attacks—an attack on the Department of Health and Human Services and a chain text message meant to cause coronavirus panic—were from foreign actors. Officials reportedly told the network the countries behind the attacks were likely Russia and China, and the U.S. intelligence community was leading the effort to find the culprits. “We are seeing multiple disinformation campaigns right now,” one official said. The HHS attack reportedly used bots in order to find vulnerabilities or to paralyze its public online systems. The panic-inducing texts, which warned of a shutdown of public services and a national quarantine, were reportedly caused by an entity infiltrating cellphone MMS and SMS text-messaging systems.