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US Says Russia Hacked Energy Grid, Punishes 19 for Meddling (apnews.com)
Associated Press: Pushing back harder on Russia, the Trump administration accused Moscow on Thursday of a concerted hacking operation targeting the U.S. energy grid, aviation systems and other infrastructure, and also imposed sanctions on Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 election. It was the strongest action to date against Russia by the administration, which has long been accused of being too soft on the Kremlin, and the first punishments for election meddling since President Donald Trump took office. The sanctions list included the 13 Russians indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose Russia investigation the president has repeatedly sought to discredit. U.S. national security officials said the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies had determined that Russian intelligence and others were behind a broad range of cyberattacks beginning a year ago that have infiltrated the energy, nuclear, commercial, water, aviation and manufacturing sectors. Further reading: Russian Government Cyber Activity Targeting Energy and Other Critical Infrastructure Sectors (US-Cert); U.S. blames Russia for cyber attacks on energy grid, other sectors (Reuters); U.S. says Russian hackers targeted American energy grid (Politico); Trump administration finally announces Russia sanctions over election meddling (CNN); U.S. sanctions on Russia cite 2016 election interference -- but remain largely symbolic (USA Today); U.S. Sanctions Russians Charged by Mueller for Election Meddling (Bloomberg); and Trump Administration Sanctions Russians for Election Meddling and Cyberattacks (The New York Times).
Seems like they've chosen to sanction people already identified and charged by Mueller, but not anyone close to Putin.
#DeleteChrome
Unfortunately with Putin you have a man who likes to hide behind his nuclear weapons sticking his tongue out breaking all the rules and niceties of international agreements and doing whatever the hell he wants knowing no-one will do anything too bad because he has nukes.
Obviously, I'm not going to say western countries are perfect, they're far from it; but Putin is dangerous because he doesn't play by the rules and he actively yearns for the good old days when Russia was subjugating many different nations and there was a cold war. Putin, to use a technical term is an immature jackass.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
It's a pretty lousy country where you only have one person who can do one thing at a time.
"Old man yells at systemd"
USSR/Russia have been meddling with foreign politics for decades. The entire "peace" movement was financed by the evil empire, financing everything "anti-war" in the West (while themselves invading neighbors like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan).
Similarly, they also funded "Black liberation".
There is even good evidence of Senator Edward Kennedy offering future cooperation in exchange for Soviet help in getting himself elected... Certainly more evidence of (attempted) collusion, than there ever was against Trump...
But none of it was important, until Trump won the elections — and it became crucially important for the swamp to, if not impeach, keep him occupied and thus less dangerous to the crocodiles.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
We probably have.
Nope, we have not caused any of this. Notably, you aren't even attempting to cite examples.
My point in this thread was not to accuse Russia, but to expose the hypocrisy of anti-Trumpers.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
"Targeting" and "attacking" the grid and grid systems is not 'hacking' the grid. It is attempted hacking. The articles talk about targeting , not successful hacks. The headline is misleading, as intended I suppose.
US has meddled in the elections and politics of other countries for decades, including 1996 Russian presidential elections, the Georgian politics during and after the Rose Revolution of 2003, Ukrainian politics and elections of 2003 and during and after the 2013-14 constitutional crisis. Not to mention the open aggression against the governments of Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), and Syria (2011 through now).
Does this imply that the energy grid is on a network that could be accessed via the Internet? If that's the case, why, and why is it necessary?
If society wants everything connected online and there's going to be prices to pay. I guess the prospect of mass surveillance and control over the population is too big of a payoff for them. What a fucked up world we live in.
And for your second "point", if someone robs your house, that's illegal and they should be arrested. It doesn't matter if you had the latest security system, or no security system. Blaming the victim is what criminals do to excuse their own horrible behavior.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Strictly speaking it is not hacking at all, but cracking.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
It is thanks to America, that millions of South Koreans enjoy the prosperity and the human rights of Capitalism. That the millions of North Koreans and Vietnamese do not have these, is despite rather than because of anything we've done.
No, I didn't. The "horrible dictator" of Chile (US-sponsored) left his country the number one economy in the South America. While Russian-sponsored Chavez and Catro have ruined theirs.
Maybe, that's because we didn't...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Strictly speaking it is not hacking at all, but cracking.
Indeed. I wondered why the government was punishing people for diligently solving problems.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Meddled in foreign powers is a fairly broad accusation, and devoid of any analysis of positive vs negative
Meddling is meddling. You can try to justify it by claiming that it was for a noble purpose, but that's ignoring the fact that it's still meddling
Wasn't starvation happening under Sadam as well, how is it we get the blame for that?
When you got involved. Until then, the starvation was Saddam's fault. Once you stepped in, it became yours. Or do you only want to claim responsibility when you succeed?
Not everyone in Iraq was sorry to see Sadam go
That doesn't mean it wasn't meddling, nor that you stop being responsible for the deaths you caused directly, indirectly or as a result of removing the government and infrastructure that lead to yet more deaths. But hey, as you say 'mission accomplished'.
I might add that the poor execution was not for lack of trying. It was more a lack of deep appreciation for the task at hand by the generals chosen to do the job.
Incompetence doesn't absolve responsibility, and no one outside of primary school cares how hard you tried or what you really meant to do.
---
To be clear, I'm a citizen of a country that sent troops to Iraq. I protested in most of the fashions legally available to me, but as it was my government who directed troops into Iraq, I am, ultimately, responsible for the deaths of those people. I take the privilege of voting seriously and understand that when a soldier obeys a legal order, that the authority traces back to the government and hence to those who could vote. Not just those who did vote, nor just those who voted for that government (I didn't). I am disgusted at the orders my government gave. I consider it a violation of the trust of those who have sworn an oath to obey. I am ashamed at being party to the invasion of a sovereign nation and I consider the death and suffering to be unacceptable.
No matter what justification you use.
People died because our governments gave orders to our soldiers. That makes _us_ responsible, and no amount of hand wringing will change that.