S government agencies may have started earlier than last spring as previously thought.

That's according to Democrat Mark Warner on Wednesday, who's vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The attack, only made public earlier this month, used the U.

S Tech company solar winds as a springboard to penetrate government networks for months, as well as critical infrastructure entities and private companies.

Once inside, hackers were able to monitor internal emails that some of the top federal agencies, including the Treasury Warner, told Reuters there was no evidence that classified government secrets have been compromised.

But investigations are still ongoing.

We're still getting information from classified sources.

I'm talking to people in the private sector side.

I think it's safe to say that you know, it may have started even earlier than March or April, um and that you know, the that.

The initial burrowing in may have started earlier that the collection period did start calendar year 2020 senior U.

S.

Officials and lawmakers have accused Russia of being behind the attack, a charge the Kremlin denies.

While U.

S President Donald Trump has suggested China might be responsible, which ever actor is to blame.

Warner said gaps in U.

S and international law made it harder to track and cracked down on security breaches.