With President Trump mum on the issue, reprisals for US hacks may fall to President-elect Biden
All fingers are pointing to Russia as the source of the worst-ever hack of U.S. government agencies. But President Donald Trump, long wary of blaming Moscow for cyberattacks, has so far been silent.
The lack of any statement seeking to hold Russia responsible casts doubt on the likelihood of a swift response and suggests any retaliation 바카라 게임 웹사이트 whether through sanctions, criminal charges or cyber actions 바카라 게임 웹사이트 will be left in the hands of President-elect Joe Biden바카라 게임 웹사이트s incoming administration.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I would imagine that the incoming administration wants a menu of what the options are and then is going to choose,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said Sarah Mendelson, a Carnegie Mellon University public policy professor and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.바카라 게임 웹사이트s Economic and Social Council. 바카라 게임 웹사이트Is there a graduated assault? Is there an all-out assault? How much out of the gate do you want to do?바카라 게임 웹사이트
To be sure, it's not uncommon for administrations to refrain from leveling public accusations of blame for hacks until they've accumulated enough evidence. Here, U.S. officials say they only recently became aware of devastating breaches at multiple government agencies in which foreign intelligence agents rooted around undetected for as much as nine months. But Trump's response, or lack thereof, is being closely watched because of his preoccupation with a fruitless effort to overturn the results of last month's election and because of his refusal to publicly acknowledge that Russian hackers interfered in the 2016 presidential election in his favor.
Exactly what action Biden might take is unclear, or how his response might be shaped by criticism that the Obama administration did not act aggressively enough to thwart interference in 2016. He offered clues in a statement Thursday, saying his administration would be proactive in preventing cyberattacks and impose costs on any adversaries behind them.
U.S. government statements so far have not mentioned Russia. Asked about Russian involvement in a radio interview Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that Russia consistently tries to penetrate American servers, but quickly pivoted to threats from China and North Korea.
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal, who were briefed Tuesday on the hacking campaign in a classified Armed Services Committee session, were unequivocal in blaming Russia.
There are other signs within the administration of a clear-eyed recognition of the severity of the attack, which happened after elite cyber spies injected malicious code into the software of a company that provides network services. The civilian cybersecurity agency warned in an advisory Thursday that the hack posed a 바카라 게임 웹사이트grave risk" to government and private networks.
A response could start with a public declaration that Russia is believed responsible, already a widely shared assessment in the U.S. government and cybersecurity community. Such statements often aren바카라 게임 웹사이트t immediate. It took weeks after the incidents became public for the Obama administration to finger North Korea in the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack in 2014 and for then-national intelligence director James Clapper to confirm China as the 바카라 게임 웹사이트leading suspect바카라 게임 웹사이트 in hacks of the Office of Personnel Management.
Public naming-and-shaming is always part of the playbook. Trump's former homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert wrote this week in a New York Times opinion piece that 바카라 게임 웹사이트the United States, and ideally its allies, must publicly and formally attribute responsibility for these hacks.바카라 게임 웹사이트 Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said in a SiriusXM radio interview that it was 바카라 게임 웹사이트extraordinary바카라 게임 웹사이트 the White House has not spoken out.
Another possibility is a federal indictment, assuming investigators can accumulate enough evidence to implicate individual hackers. Such cases are labor-intensive and often take years, and though they may carry slim chances of courtroom prosecution, the Justice Department regards them as having powerful deterrent effects.
Sanctions, a time-honored punishment, can have even more bite and will almost certainly be weighed by Biden. President Barack Obama expelled Russian diplomats over the 2016 election interference, and the Trump administration and Western allies took similar action against Moscow for its alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.
Exposing Kremlin corruption, including how Russian President Vladimir Putin accrues and hides his wealth, may amount to even more formidable retaliation.
바카라 게임 웹사이트This isn't just a tit-for-tat or hacking back into their systems,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said Mendelson, the former ambassador. 바카라 게임 웹사이트It's, 바카라 게임 웹사이트We바카라 게임 웹사이트re going to go for what you really care about, and what you really care about is the funds that are stashed, and revealing the larger network and how it바카라 게임 웹사이트s connected to the Kremlin.바카라 게임 웹사이트바카라 게임 웹사이트
The U.S. can also retaliate in cyberspace, a path made easier by a Trump administration authorization that has already resulted in some operations.
Former national security adviser John Bolton told reporters at a 2018 briefing that offensive cyber operations against foreign rivals would now be part of the U.S. arsenal and that the U.S. response would no longer be primarily defensive.
바카라 게임 웹사이트We can totally melt down their home networks,바카라 게임 웹사이트 said Jason Healey, a Columbia University cyberconflict scholar. 바카라 게임 웹사이트And any time we see their operators popping up they know that we are going to go after them, wherever they are.바카라 게임 웹사이트
U.S. Cyber Command has also taken more proactive measures, engaging in what officials describe as 바카라 게임 웹사이트hunt forward바카라 게임 웹사이트 operations that let them detect cyber threats in other countries before they reach their intended target. Military cyber fighters, for instance, partnered with Estonia in the weeks before the U.S. presidential election in a joint operation aimed at identifying and defending against threats from Russia.
While the U.S. is also prolific in its offensive cyberintelligence-gathering 바카라 게임 웹사이트 tapping allied foreign leaders바카라 게임 웹사이트 phones and inserting spyware into commercial routers, for instance 바카라 게임 웹사이트 such efforts are measured compared to the infection of 18,000 government and private-sector organizations in the SolarWinds hack, Healey said.
The better response 바카라 게임 웹사이트 since espionage itself is not a crime 바카라 게임 웹사이트 is to triple down on defensive cybersecurity, Healey said.
David Simon, a cybersecurity expert and former Defense Department special counsel, said there must be consequences for those who responsible for attacks 바카라 게임 웹사이트 and the Trump administration 바카라 게임 웹사이트has fallen far short in holding the Kremlin accountable.바카라 게임 웹사이트
바카라 게임 웹사이트Until it바카라 게임 웹사이트s clear the U.S. will impose meaningful costs on adversaries," he said in an email, 바카라 게임 웹사이트a material change in the Kremlin바카라 게임 웹사이트s behavior is not likely to be seen.바카라 게임 웹사이트