any consequence because it was difficult. our four principle state adversaries are china, russia, north korea and iran. that was about china and it reflected our unmasking of their signature. i personally believe long term russia is our most significant adversary and they have a different signature reflected in the mueller indictment of last week. because being invisible is the principle currency of our hacking adversaries, unmasking them is very important. how does it hurt them to show what they are doing? obviously, it means for the individuals who are charged, they can t come to this country, in some cases depending on the jurisdiction they may find it hard to travel internationally at large not just travel to the united states. how else does it hurt them if their government will never send them here to be tried? cyber hacking is not an incident, it s a campaign. therefore, our response to it has to be a campaign. okay.
specificity with respect to the synchronicity with regard to the campaign and the tease who might be americans connected to the russians but it reflects another general proposition. the russian architecture in this country sitting there which creates the avenue for them to do hacking. the work that they did to implant things in our systems. that has to be taken account of. that circle is now complete. david hickton is our guest. we ll be right back with him for more right after there. high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that s why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.
trump s surprise pick for trump s secretary of state right after russian official 1, an accused russian spy mariia butina talked about checking out whether president trump s choice for secretary of state was okay with our people. that seems like something probably warranted looking into. did russia just not help elect donald trump? did they pick the cabinet? if republicans in congress professing to be so concerned and puzzled and concerned about trump s behavior in helsinki this weekend, if they re interested in uncovering what has gone on between trump and russia, what the extent is of russian involvement in our democracy, this is exactly the sort of thing they could hold hearings on if they wanted to. and a lot of other things besides. ambassador michael mcfaul joins us next. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body s own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn t exist until now.
hacking, spying and cyber theft for commercial advantage can and will be prosecuted criminally, even when the defendants are state actors. that was david hickton. then the u.s. attorney in the western district of pennsylvania announcing in 2014 the first criminal indictments against state actors for hacking and in that case it was five chinese military hackers widely considered to be the blueprint for how to bring these basically counter intelligence charges as criminal actions against foreign government actors. we are now living through a very big important development in that history with the special counsel bringing a big indictment against russian agents for hacking the 2016 election. back with us again is david hickton. let me ask you about, i guess, a narrower question about how to pursue these things.
russia trying to help elect hillary clinton and it being a scam against vladamir putin where he s the real victim. to create that kind of equivalence is the kind of thing the trump administration would love to do in order to undermine the justice department s investigation. that to me doesn t at all seem nuts. my question for you in terms of being at the sharp end of this, does this put you in danger? does this change the way you think about your bait to travel? are you worried about your safety? well, it s a good point about, that s a classic putin ploy, right? i think there was even 11 americans, if i m not mistaken. the equivalence was very clear, imagine that one-on-one meeting between the two presidents, no note takers there. he s laying there all out. i ve been in those meetings with putin. he s a good story teller, adding little facts, not real facts but pieces of information to spin it together. i hope our president didn t just nod along. with respect to me, i have