Experts Increasingly View SolarWinds Breach as Attack on US, Opening Way for Retaliation
On 12/18/20 at 7:44 PM EST
The unprecedented hack that appears to have first hit software company SolarWinds before spreading to some of the highest levels of the U.S. government is testing the definition of what constitutes cyber espionage and what the Pentagon defines as an actual attack on the nation.
If it is determined to be an attack, experts warn it would open the way for retaliation, including in the physical realm. But defining exactly what constitutes an attack in cyberspace, even in the 21st century, remains a murky issue.
responses, but what are capabilities just in general? i mean, i know iran s nuclear program was slowing down through, i think it was a cybervirus that was put out by somebody. i m not sure if it was the u.s. or some other state players? i mean, how vulnerable is the u.s. electrical grid? what could actually be done to russia or to the united states? how bad can it get? let s break it down into a couple areas, anderson. first of all, russia is executing a cybercampaign. that means they re associating various battles to do a strategic objective. they are doing that. we are not right now. there are two various elements of the cybercommunity. there s computer network defense and computer network attack. cnd, cna. it is either defending our own assets or going after someone else s. there are a variety of things that we can do, and as jim said earlier, it can do a stairstep approach. anything from implanting spyware to effect ai inthe trust in anor
let s break it down into a couple areas, anderson. first of all, russia is executing a cybercampaign. that means they re associating various battles to do a strategic objective. they are doing that. we are not right now. there are two various elements of the cybercommunity. there s computer network defense and computer network attack. cnd, cna. it is either defending our own assets or going after someone else s. there are a variety of things that we can do, and as jim said earlier, it can do a stairstep approach.
government or totally shutting down things. i think what the president said tonight is he was giving fair warning. he s had the conversation with mr. putin, has has been reported multiple times. and mr. putin has continued to execute this campaign. not individual terrorist strikes, but a campaign of cyberwar, as part of an asymmetric attack against the united states and other western powers. and he s been doing it for years. when i was in europe, he was doing it to several nations in europe. so we are in a position right now where we not only have to defend our own infrastructure, which is very challenging to do when you re talking about the size of the country, but there is the potential for computer network attack, although very few people will admit that. and they may go all the way from a small warning, all the way up to infrastructure shutdown, and the key to all of this is never knowing w knowi knowing who executed it and where it s coming from.