It is now widely known that the Obama administration has asked the CIA to make recommendations on a potential cyber attack on Russia, as well as on its President, Vladimir Putin. But what are the underlying reasons, how and when will the “attack” be executed, and will it really happen?
According to an NBC News report, U.S. Intelligence officials, the U.S. government is planning an “unprecedented cyber covert action” against Russia for the latter interfering in the U.S. presidential elections. So far, we know that the CIA is readying itself for a massive attack and has identified several entry points for the attack. They have also collected considerable documentation related to money matters on the Russian president and his associates.
According to Vice President Joe Biden, the U.S. government is “sending a message” and that “it will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact.”
Why is the U.S. planning a cyber attack on the Russian Federation?
Over the past months there have been several security hacks purportedly executed by Russian intelligence entities, but Putin is now making open threats against the United States.
“Do you want to have Barack Obama bouncing checks?”, he asked, after saying that anything that the U.S. can do against Russia, Russia can do back to the U.S.
So, will the U.S. actually attack Russia’s networks? Many seem to think not.
According to former CIA deputy director Michael Morell:
“Physical attacks on networks is not something the U.S. wants to do because we don’t want to set a precedent for other countries to do it as well, including against us.”
From that perspective, the threat of mutual cyber attacks seems a bit like the Cold War situation, where Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) would have been the inevitable outcome of either nation attacking the other.
Unlike the Cold War, however, a precedence has already been set with Russian hackers disrupting the election process. The CIA’s goals are now two-fold: to protect the November elections from a Russian cyber attack, and to send a message to Russia’s government.
Will the U.S. actually do it? Biden hopes the American people won’t know about it, but others feel that the action should be out in the open – overt rather than covert.
Either way, this is a game of chess where one false move could trigger a series of mishaps that would eventually affect both nations and the security of their networks.
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