By Eric King
A report that U.S military hackers have penetrated crucial infrastructure in Russia, “making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber -weapons should the US deem it necessary,” has been released.
The report first announced by NBC news has led to Russia demanding an explanation for the attack.
Russia said that If no official reaction from the American administration follows, ”it would mean state cyber terrorism exists in the US. If the threats of the attack, which were published by the US media, are carried out, Moscow would be justified in charging Washington,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, according to the ministry’s website.
NBC said the hack was carried out in preparation for waging a full-scale cyberwar with Russia.This is not a positive development in the ongoing war of words between the U.S and Russia.
The demand for an explanation was made in response to the U.S announcement that its cyber offensive had infiltrated Russia’s power grids, telecommunications networks, and the kremlin’s commands systems for a possible sabotage.
Military Hacking
Military hacking is nothing new in cyber warfare. Cyber warfare has been used by the U.S in the past to capture electronic intelligence from Russia during the cold war, in order to develop the best strategy of defeating them. The problem with this cyber attack is that it is in retaliation to the U.S view that Russia has interfered with the American elections through cyber attacks given to Wikileaks. That claim has the support of the CIA, but no proper evidence has been provided to the public to determine themselves. Russia has denied the cyber attacks, or any attempt to interfere with the U.S elections, but the U.S authorities are not buying it. The military hacking appears to be their response to their deep-seated view that Russia masterminded a series of cyber attacks aimed at interfering with the U.S elections.
Evidence
The U.S may be right and have concrete evidence to support their view. However, evidence of this have not revealed to the public, which would be useful in showing us all how factual the claim is. In the meantime, we are all left to observe what will follow Russia’s demand for an explanation of the military hacking, which the Kremlin will claim has no justification.
On the strength of the evidence before us, the claim from the U.S makes sense, but is not certain. It makes sense because of the suggestion that has come from someone in the know in Russia, that if Hilary Clinton wins, it will lead to a third world war.
This view could easily be a factor for any cyber attack conducted by the U.S on Russian networks. The weakness of this position is the absence of concrete proof to the public about the evidence the CIA has to connect Russia with the cyber attacks on Hilary Clinton’s emails when she was Secretary of State. Russia on the face of it would appear have grounds to demand an explanation for the military hacking of its infrastructure.
There have always been conspiracy theories that the U.S could fake an attack on itself in order to justify a counter attack of similar proportions. The existence of conspiracy theories have always been an inescapable presence in all conflicts, but irrefutable facts carry more weight than mere speculation. The U.S may have those facts, but we would all love to have them too.
Russia’s Demand For Explanation Of Military Hacking
Russia’s demand for an explanation of the cyber attacks was accompanied with a warning by the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova to charge Washington if no explanation is provided.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Russia had “cyber security measures taken at the level proper for the current situation, and the threats voiced against us by officials of other nations.”
The whole cyber attack issue started after U.S presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s allegations that Moscow engaged in hacking to damage her bid for the White house presidency. have become a major issue in the ongoing US election campaign. Hillary Clinton has accused Russia of hacking into the Democrats’ computer networks and publishing sensitive information in order to discredit her candidacy in favor of Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Russia maintains a denial of those allegations, and now demand an explanation in relation to the cyber attacks now Russia’s infrastructure, now admitted by the U.S.