kevin mandia is the c.e.o. of fireeye.he company was the first one to discover that this massive breach happened. good morning to you. >> margaret, good morning to you. >> brennan: the trump administration described this as an on-going attack and possess great risk to the federal government, to state governments, to private institutions and critical infrastructure. it went undetected for nearly nine months. how should the public understand how significant is it? >> right. well, there are a lot of ways to look at this intrusion. first and foremost, it is different than other ones that we commonly respond to. we respond to over a thousand breaches a year. what separates this is who did it, how they did it, and what they did when they got in. and i'll get to the who probably last. but when you look at the how, margaret, that's what makes this totally unique. this was not a drive-by shooting on the information highway. this was a sniper round from somebody a mile away from your house. this was special operations, and it was go

of fireeye, the cybersecurity company who discovered the hack, kevin mandia. plus the economy: what's the prognosis for recovery in 2021. the head of the san francisco federal reserve mary daly joins us. it is all just ahead on "fac the nation." ♪ >> brennan: good morning. and welcome to "face the nation." the typically joyful season comes n one of the country's darkest moments. 17.5 million people in the u.s. have been diagnosed with covid-19. one in 250 were diagnosed with the disease just last week. more than 300,000 have died over the course of this pandemic, and experts are predicting that cases have not yet peaked. the health care system may be overwhelmed in the next few weeks, pushing hospitals and medical professionals to their own breaking points. additionally, a major cyber attack is under way, posing what government officials call a grave danger to both government and private entities. but as we come on the air this morning, there is hope: a second vaccine manufactured by moderna is being shipped to all 50 states. congress has also resolved a major

in a blog, its chief executive kevin mandia said sensitive hacking tools had been stolen and the fbies are taking place in new zealand to mark the first anniversary of the deadly eruption of the white island volcano. 22 people died when the volcano spewed out ash, acidic sludge and poisonous gases. venice has flooded once again, after its $7 billion flood barrier system was not activated, as a result of mistaken forecasts. tides rose higher than expected, and by the time the city's 78 barriers were called upon, it was too late and water had already entered the famous lagoon. us president—electjoe biden has set a goal of 100 million coronavirus vaccinations during his first 100 days in office. the country has recorded more than 15 million cases of the infection with 285,000 deaths. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. the news that could not come soon enough, the us regulator, the food and drug administration, found no safety concerns to stop approval of the pfizer biotech vaccine. with millions of americans going through the most severe stay—at—home orders in the pand

kevin mandia is chief executive of fireeye, and i asked him to explain how the attack occured.o say it in under 1000 words, but i'll say it this way. this was a breach that wasn't a break through the window, this was a special operation where if somebody was robbing the building in cyberspace, they came under cover of darkness and helicopters through the back door and solarwinds. this was a special operation by the best hackers in the world or at least a nation with decades of experience going on offence and executing these campaigns. can you point the finger at anyone in particular, at russia? we respond to over 1000 breaches a year and we take the fingerprints, like a good detective, on every one of those breaches. you've heard government officials in the us point the finger at russia. we have no reason to believe that's not the case, but what i can tell you is the breach is so pervasive and there's so many people working on it that i'm confident we're going to go to 90% certainty, we're going to find the building where this occurred in and get attribution right on this. you

kevin mandia is chief executive of fireeye. he's on the line from washington, dc. appened. yeah, there's no easy way to say it in under a thousand words, but i'll say it this way. this was a breach that wasn't a break through the window, this was a special operation where if somebody was robbing the building in cyberspace, they came under cover of darkness and helicopters through the back door and solar winds. —— solarwinds. this was by the best hackers in the world or at least a nation with decades of experience going on offence and executing these campaigns. can you point the finger at russia? we respond to over a thousand breaches a year and we take the fingerprints, like a good detective, on every one of those breaches. you've heard government officials point the finger up russia. we have no reason to believe that's not the case, but what i can tell you is the breach is so pervasive and there's so many people working on it that i'm confident we're going to go to 90% certainty, we're going to go to 90% certainty, we're going to find the building where this occurr