U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia's Power Grid

[Zorro]

Source: New York Times

The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said.

In interviews over the past three months, the officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets as a classified companion to more publicly discussed action directed at Moscow’s disinformation and hacking units around the 2018 midterm elections.

Advocates of the more aggressive strategy said it was long overdue, after years of public warnings from the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. that Russia has inserted malware that could sabotage American power plants, oil and gas pipelines, or water supplies in any future conflict with the United States.

But it also carries significant risk of escalating the daily digital Cold War between Washington and Moscow.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/us/politics/trump-cyber-russia-grid.html

[Nitram]

14. They are not inserting them in US products. They are inserting the malware into the computer systems

that run the power grid. If it is true that Russia has already planted malware into our power grid the idea is that if they activated the software to disrupt our system, we'd do the same to them. Publicly announcing that fact both reassures the American public that the US is not idly standing by, and lets Russia know that an attack on our system will result in immediate retaliation of the same kind.

[Nitram]

17. Freelancer, I was responding to post that criticized the announcement of the action. "We didn't

announce?" Thanks for the perfunctory reflexive response to ANY SUGGESTION that a post had some inaccuracies and/or misunderstanding of an international situation. If your idea of communication is when everyone agrees with you about everything, then I guess I feel your pain. Isn't it possible that I was just trying to have a discussion about two areas where I thought I might have some insight that differed from the poster's opinion? Is that such a crime? AAARGH!!! indeed.

[Maeve]

2. What could possibly go wrong with this?

And we really need to do things that we would scream bloody murder about if another country did them to us!!

[SHRED]

3. Come on Putin

Release the pee pee video!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. So stupid. Reveals methods and tools to adversary before we really need to deploy them. . . . nt

[Owl]

10. Exactly

[Politicub]

11. Maybe this is one of the things Trump has declassified

That’s why it is being reported.

[Nitram]

15. I disagree. It has a psychological effect as powerful as the infrastructure threat.

It could be complete fabrication...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Blockbuster story buried in this NYT report. Pentagon, intelligence officials fear....

Blockbuster story buried in this NYT report.

Pentagon, intelligence officials fear they cannot trust Trump enough to brief him fully on new US cyber operation against Russia for fear he will "countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials" as he did before with Russians.

Link to tweet

[katusha]

8. why is it buried in the article

Could the source of this info have asked them to bury it because they know trump would never read this far into any story? As long as it isn't a headline or on tv it doesn't exist to trump.

[demmiblue]

9. +1

Unbelievable.

[NewDayOranges]

6. GOOD! Turnabout is fair play...

[Blues Heron]

26. escalation is a really bad strategy

an eye for an eye makes the world go blind

[NewDayOranges]

27. Sitting around with your thumb up your ass while hoping

the Russians won't do it again is an even worse strategy...

The Russians need to know that we can play that game, too...

Our power grids/systems are a National Security issue and have been for several decades/years. Our federal government should have decentralized our electrical power system using green/solar power years ago but Republicans have seemingly blocked every attempt to upgrade our power grid...

IT'S LIKE THE REPUBLICANS ARE WORKING FOR THE RUSSIANS and the fossil fuel industry or something...

[Blues Heron]

28. Can't complain about them in our grid if we're in ther grid now can we

Two wrongs don't make a right. That's just fundamental, no pun intended

[NewDayOranges]

29. You live in a dream world! This thing about two wrongs

doesn't make it right? Sounds naive.

It's time you join the real world...

[Blues Heron]

30. I definitely don't want the war world you're living in, that's for sure.

[NewDayOranges]

31. Life is not fair - deal with it!

And with that I'm done here. Have a great evening...

[bronxiteforever]

7. But if Russia is able to supply dirt on our Nominee

Trump will say all is forgiven!

[NBachers]

12. These nitwits will fuck everything up. Our grid, utilities, institutions, and banks aren't safe.

It doesn't take a giant attack- a small-town hospital; a water treatment plant, a dam spillway control, a local bank, a university, a village's substation, rail controls or a gas & oil pipeline, elevators - any of these can create huge misery and injury.

They're babies playing with matches and gas already. We don't need them dead-gaming around with this shit.

[groundloop]

13. Instead of this childish game why aren't we putting as much effort into safeguarding our elections?

Disrupting another nation like that is just fucking stupid, it sounds like some teenage hackers with nothing better to do. For the money that was spent on these efforts we should have been working toward safeguarding our elections from foreign interference, purchasing new voting machines that were more secure and provided a paper trail, and guarding against manipulation of social media.

Not to mention the fact that Putin will just ratchet up the attacks against us. JUST FUCKING STUPID.

[ck4829]

25. Right

[Eugene]

18. Trump Accuses New York Times of 'Treason' for Story on U.S. Cyber Offensive Against Russia

Source: Daily Beast

1. SAVING FACE?

Trump Accuses New York Times of ‘Treason’ for Story on U.S. Cyber Offensive Against Russia

Allison QuinnBreaking News Reporter
Published 06.15.19 9:59PM ET

President Trump has accused The New York Times of committing a “virtual act of treason” by publishing a story Saturday saying his administration has been targeting Russia’s power grid as part of an ongoing operation to counter cyber threats. “Do you believe that the Failing New York Times just did a story stating that the United States is substantially increasing Cyber Attacks on Russia. This is a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our Country,” Trump wrote on Twitter late Saturday. “ALSO, NOT TRUE! Anything goes with our Corrupt News Media today. They will do, or say, whatever it takes, with not even the slightest thought of consequence! These are true cowards and without doubt, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” he said.

The Times report relied on three-months worth of interviews with several current and former government officials, who described the deployment of American computer code into Russia’s electrical power grid in a move meant partly as a warning to Russian intelligence and partly as a pre-emptive strike in case of a cyberattack. Trump himself reportedly granted new authorities to the United States Cyber Command last year, and is also said to have personally signed off on an operation to take Russian internet troll farm Internet Research Agency offline during the 2018 midterm elections. National Security Adviser John Bolton also appeared to hint at a more aggressive cyber strategy toward Russia earlier this week.

“We thought the response in cyberspace against electoral meddling was the highest priority last year, and so that’s what we focused on. But we’re now opening the aperture, broadening the areas we’re prepared to act in,” he said at a conference sponsored by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “We will impose costs on you until you get the point.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-accuses-new-york-times-of-treason-for-story-on-us-cyber-offensive-against-russia

[ck4829]

19. K&R

[lark]

20. 1 - doubt it. 2 - it's more if you don't keep me in this stolen office, you will pay a price.

He intends on Russia/SA/Israel interfering on his behalf and even stealing the election for him through voter hacking at the machine level or voter role hacking with the state databases.

3 - In reality, isn't this what the Pentagon is hiding from drumpf because they know he will tell his dictatorship backers

[Bayard]

21. Putin: Bad dog!!

Heal!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. Tit for tat

Or Trump waving his dick?

[hunter]

23. Good job guys! Looks like you took out Argentina and Uruguay, but missed Russia.

Argentina, Uruguay suffer massive power blackout
Source: Deutsche Welle

Date 16.06.2019

A problem in the energy network has left two South American states cut off from power at 7:06 a.m. local time (10:06 UTC)

Energy distribution company Edesur, a major provider to the two nations, confirmed the outage in a tweet.

"A massive failure in the electrical interconnection system left all of Argentina and Uruguay without power," said Edesur. Company spokeswoman Alejandra Martinez described the power as historic, saying "nothing like this has ever happened."

https://www.dw.com/en/argentina-uruguay-paraguay-suffer-massive-power-blackout/a-49225070

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142329505

[ck4829]

24. LOL, with this administration, that's probably what happened

[Blue_Tires]

32. About time we started fighting back