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The lack of statements seeking to hold Russia accountable raises questions about whether there will be a swift response from the United States. In all likelihood, retaliation, whether in the form of sanctions, legal action, or actions on the computer side, will be left to incoming President Joe Biden and his government.
Microsoft said Thursday night that more than 40 of its customers were affected by malware, called malware. Among other things, this software is said to have been installed at the US Treasury Department, where hackers were given access to the internal email exchange.
Various media also report that the Ministry of Energy has been affected. The Ministry is responsible for the handling of US nuclear weapons, but has emphasized that security around this has not been affected.
Russia denies being behind the attack, which has been dubbed the Sunburst and appears to have persisted for several months before it was discovered.
Menu
– I suppose the incoming government will have a menu of possible measures and then choose what they want to do, says Sarah Mendelson, professor of political science at Carnegie Mellon University.
It is not uncommon for a government to wait with public accusations about who is behind the hacker attack until enough evidence has been obtained. In this case, US officials have said that they have recently realized that foreign players have been accessing the systems for nine months without being detected.
However, President Donald Trump’s response, or lack of response, is being closely monitored. So far he has gone to great lengths to try to overturn the result of last month’s presidential election, which he lost. Trump has also previously refused to acknowledge the conclusion of US intelligence and analysts that Russia interfered in the 2016 election that he won.
– Unforgivable silence
Statements by US authorities on the case so far have not mentioned Russia. When asked about Russian interference in a radio interview Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that Russia regularly tries to attack American servers but quickly changed the subject to threats from China and North Korea.
Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow also didn’t want to blame the Kremlin when asked about the case.
– People say it’s Russia. I don’t know anything about it. It could be other countries, he said.
Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal, who were briefed on the hack on Thursday at a confidential meeting of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, later made clear that Russia had been identified as the culprit.
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney took a hard line against his party colleague Trump on Friday, accusing him of displaying “an inexcusable silence and a lack of action” in the case.
– The cyber attack is as if the Russian bombers have repeatedly flown undetected across our country, Romney wrote in Twitter.
Proactive
It is unclear what Biden could do with the case when he takes office. The Barack Obama administration, of which Biden was vice president, was subsequently harshly criticized for failing to act more aggressively when Russian interference was discovered in 2016.
However, in a statement Thursday, Biden said his administration would be “proactive” in its efforts to prevent cyber attacks. He also said that those behind should expect to pay.
A response may begin with a public statement that Russia is held responsible, which according to the AP is the conclusion reached so far by the US security services. However, such a statement can take time.
It took weeks before the Obama administration went public and said that North Korea was behind the hackers attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014, and before then-intelligence chief James Clapper declared that China was the prime suspect of the attack on the Office of Personnel Management, the agency responsible for personnel management. .
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