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).

Comments

Picking safe targets

[93 Escort Wagon]

Seems like they've chosen to sanction people already identified and charged by Mueller, but not anyone close to Putin.

Re:Picking safe targets

[ClickOnThis]

Seems like they've chosen to sanction people already identified and charged by Mueller, but not anyone close to Putin.

Correct, Mueller's 13 are among the 19 individuals sanctioned. Five organizations also were targeted in the sanctions.

But note that the administration is acting on an authority granted by Congress last summer, with a congressionally-mandated deadline to act by early February, a month and a half ago. Mueller's indictments occurred after that deadline passed.

And now Trump acts. To say he was reluctant is putting it mildly.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15...

Re:Picking safe targets

[ISayWeOnlyToBePolite]

If you believe the collusion conspiracy, those people are some of Putin's closest aides.

The Russians indicted by Mueller are allegedly the ones behind the fake social media posts, not anyone suspected of colluding with the Trump campaign. AFAIK no one believes Putin sent his "closest aides" to work with the Trump campaign but rather the opposite .

Re:Picking safe targets

[CaptainDork]

The sanctions just enacted are a response to an event that the administration said did not happen.

Mixed messages.

Putin hiding behind nuclear weapons

[Oswald McWeany]

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.

Re:Putin hiding behind nuclear weapons

[Anonymous Coward]

What a load of nonsense.

GWB withdrew the US from the ABM treaty, following the procedure specified in the treaty to do so. He didn't "break" it.

The key violation of the INF treaty is the Russian Iskander missile. The US does not have intermediate range ballistic missile. At all. That Russia keeps complaining that the treaty does not suit them because China is not part of it (while placing their missiles in Kaliningrad, clearly where the Chinese are going to attack) is neither here nor there.

The top 3 meddlers in Syria are Iran, Russia and Turkey, all directly involved. Followed by the Gulf states giving money to various factions. The west, including the US, has largely stood by.

The Libya campaign was executed in accordance with a UN resolution that neither Russia nor China opposed, even though they had a veto.

The only point you're making that's worthy of consideration is the US invasion of Iraq.

As for Russia, how about we begin with Russia signing a treaty with Ukraine by which it guaranteed the integrity of its territory, not only not to invade it, but actually to defend it, in exchange for Ukraine abandoning its nukes, and then taking over part of it. Putin made a very clear statement that Russia's word wasn't worth wiping your ass with.

Re:Misplaced priorities

[Mr D from 63]

"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.

Whataboutism at it's best

[Comboman]

You want someone arrested for a natural disaster? There's a big difference between losing power in a storm and someone INTENTIONALLY trying to disable the power system.

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.