Russians have hacked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the third federal agency to be hacked by the Russian government in an elaborate cyberattack scheme.

Yes, the very same government agency tasked with safeguarding American assets from cyberattacks.

Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D) responded to the news of the Russian hack, stating that the U.S, needed to impose “severe costs” on President Vladimir Putin. Rep. Murphy added that unless strict “consequences” are put in place to deter future Russian aggression, Putin will continue his cyberattacks with impunity.

“The hard truth is the only way to deter this sort of outrageous but unsurprising Russian conduct is to impose swift and severe costs on Putin that make him think twice before doing this again,” stated Murphy. “Unless there are consequences, this behavior will only continue.”

The DHS is the third government institution to be compromised. The Treasury and Commerce departments were first to announce the breach, and it expected that more public and private agencies could soon join the list of victims.

The Russian government is naturally denying any involvement in the security breach, but U.S. officials are pointing to the SVR, the Russian intelligence bureau.

In 2016, the federal government was able to verify that the Russian government influenced that year’s election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee and stealing private emails, research, and campaign emails.

And just this year, government officials blamed the Iranian and Russian governments for sending email to Democrat voters urging them to switch their political affiliations and vote for President Donald Trump.