China, Russia, China, Russia—it’s starting to feel like we are watching a tennis match between China and Russia with the U.S. being the tennis ball under attack. The latest volley from the Russians centers around a cyber-attack that breached 200 U.S. federal agencies and firms.
Russia is believed to have been behind the attacks, while Donald Trump has signaled that he believes China is to blame. For now, Joe Biden is going with the Democrats’ favorite villain, Russia, as the instigator of the attacks.
The president-elect is reportedly considering cyber-attacks on Russian infrastructure in retaliation for the hacks that hit the U.S. The massive data breach in the U.S. allowed hackers to explore the networks of government agencies and private companies for months.
Financial sanctions against Russian state companies and the business (businesses?) connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin are also reportedly being considered by Biden.
Fired Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Chief Chris Krebs admitted his “failure” to prevent or stop the hack, telling CNN, “It happened on my watch. We missed it. A bunch of other folks missed it. But there is work to do now going forward to make sure A: we get past this, that we get the Russians out of the networks, but, B: that it never happens again.” Krebs also warned, “I’d be very careful with escalating this.”
SolarWinds is the company at the center of the hack attack, which permitted a gateway into public and private-sector computer systems. Moscow has denied involvement.
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