The U.S. intelligence chief highlighted that computer networks of US government agencies, enterprises, and academic institutions are under incessant attack launched by foreign states. Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran are the most persistent attacker, the number of their attacks continue to increase and the level of sophistication is growing too. The Director of National Intelligence believes that Russia is the most aggressive threat actor and recent events demonstrate it. On Friday, the special Counsel Robert Mueller, who indicted on February 13 Russians for a massive operation aimed to influence the 2016 Presidential election, charged 12 Russian intelligence officers working under the GRU of carrying out “large-scale cyber operations” to steal Democratic Party documents and emails. Of the four, “Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor, no question,” he said. There is a great difference between campaigns launched by China and Russian ones. According to Coats, China operates with the primary intent on stealing military and industrial secrets and had “capabilities, resources that perhaps Russia doesn’t have.”
The Kremlin operated to undermine U.S. values and democratic institutions. Coats spoke at the Hudson Institute think tank shortly after the announcement of the indictment. Coats warned of threat a “crippling cyber attack on our critical infrastructure” by a nation state actor is growing. “Coats said the U.S. government has not yet detected the kinds of cyber attacks and intrusions that officials say Russia launched against state election boards and voter data bases before the 2016 election.” reported the Reuters. “However, we fully realize that we are just one click away of the keyboard from a similar situation repeating itself,” Coats continued. He made a parallelism on the current situation in the cyberspace with the “alarming activities” that U.S. intelligence detected before al Qaeda conducted Sept. 11, 2001 attack. “The system was blinking red. Here we are nearly two decades later and I’m here to say the warning lights are blinking red again,” he said. Coats also mentioned the so-called “troll factory” operated by unnamed “individuals” affiliated with the Internet Research Agency based in the St. Petersburg that was indicted by federal authorities in February. These individuals have been “creating new social media accounts, masquerading as Americans and then using these accounts to draw attention to divisive issues,” he said.
Security Affairs
The Kremlin operated to undermine U.S. values and democratic institutions. Coats spoke at the Hudson Institute think tank shortly after the announcement of the indictment. Coats warned of threat a “crippling cyber attack on our critical infrastructure” by a nation state actor is growing. “Coats said the U.S. government has not yet detected the kinds of cyber attacks and intrusions that officials say Russia launched against state election boards and voter data bases before the 2016 election.” reported the Reuters. “However, we fully realize that we are just one click away of the keyboard from a similar situation repeating itself,” Coats continued. He made a parallelism on the current situation in the cyberspace with the “alarming activities” that U.S. intelligence detected before al Qaeda conducted Sept. 11, 2001 attack. “The system was blinking red. Here we are nearly two decades later and I’m here to say the warning lights are blinking red again,” he said. Coats also mentioned the so-called “troll factory” operated by unnamed “individuals” affiliated with the Internet Research Agency based in the St. Petersburg that was indicted by federal authorities in February. These individuals have been “creating new social media accounts, masquerading as Americans and then using these accounts to draw attention to divisive issues,” he said.
Security Affairs
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