America is under attack – VG

The United States is facing a major attack from hackers. Probably the most complete ever created. This triggers some critical questions that have yet to be answered:

How big is the damage? How was the attack carried out? Why wasn’t it discovered earlier?

On Friday night US time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was “pretty clear” that the Russians are behind it. It was the first time that the authorities arrived with some kind of official confirmation. But on Saturday, President Donald Trump spoke out against his secretary of state, US experts and intelligence services. This is not the first time.

Trump wrote on Twitter that “fake media” has made the attack bigger than it actually is. Without any evidence, he claimed that it could be China that is behind it. He also believed that piracy could have affected the presidential elections, which had previously been rejected by the central and local electoral authorities.

Trump’s remarks follow a strange pattern. When Russia is accused of cyber attacks, Trump tempers it. Or direct suspicion towards others. When the United States has been the target of extensive piracy in the past, Trump has said that countries other than Russia can easily be behind it. He has consistently questioned or rejected the clear conclusions of US intelligence and the Mueller Commission that Russia was behind extensive hacking in connection with the presidential election four years ago.

The US security authorities are clear that the cyberattack poses a serious risk to the country. The massive attack lasted for several months without anyone sounding the alarm. It is still happening. The more that is known about this attack, the worse it looks. The massive operation not only affects the ministries and directorates of the United States. It is also aimed at private technology companies in the United States and in several other Western countries.

But the main target is the United States and the timing is noteworthy. The cyberattack takes place at a time when the United States is in the process of changing its political leadership and replacing much of the central administration. Trump is the only one who claims that everything is under control.

As usual, Moscow denies any involvement in the case. No evidence has been presented. There are unfounded accusations in the media. It is part of the attempts of Western countries to blacken Russia. The same was said when the Storting was subjected to piracy this summer.

In early December, the Police Security Service (PST) said that Russian cyber actors were behind the hacking on the Storting. This is probably a group under Russian military intelligence.

PST refers to a campaign that has been running, nationally and internationally, since 2019. Russian hackers have been accused for several years of a large number of attacks against Western democracies.

Russia is not the only one with the ability to carry out offensive cyber operations. It also has the United States and several others. But those who are now attacking the United States are likely using tactics, techniques and procedures that have yet to be discovered, according to the Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA).

The attack on the United States is advanced and difficult to detect. Then it will also be demanding to get an overview of the harmful effects and take the necessary countermeasures. A former adviser to President Trump on computer security, Thomas Bossert, writes in a New York Times publication that the United States should act as if the Russian government is in control of the networks they have infiltrated.

Next President Joe Biden says that from the moment he takes office, he will put cybersecurity top priority. He says there is still much we don’t know about the latest attack, but what we do know is cause for deep concern. What Biden intends to do in practice is less clear, but he believes a greater degree of deterrence is required. It says the United States will inflict significant losses on those responsible for the cyber attacks.

– We must disrupt and prevent our counterparts from carrying out major cyber attacks, says Biden.

Easier said than done. Hacking does not have to cost a lot, at the same time that cyberattacks force the other party to spend large resources on strengthening the defense. Such attacks are difficult to track and it is easy for a state actor to abdicate responsibility.

A cyber attack can cause great harm to the other party. The US National Security Agency says the latest massive attack poses a serious risk to public and private computer networks. Several federal offices have been infiltrated, including authorities that manage critical infrastructure. American experts in the field say the purpose of the latest massive attack is apparently espionage and not an attempt to destroy or bring down computer networks. Then they could already have.

That the attack could go undetected for several months reveals how vulnerable socially critical institutions are. Therefore, strengthening security in this area will be an important task for the next administration.

Biden takes over in a cold winter season in relations between Moscow and Western countries. The biggest cyber attack makes it even colder. Joe Biden faces his first foreign policy test.