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The U.S. Needs a Stronger Cyber Defense Against Russia
April 6, 2021
The Newsletter
Paul Kolbe, Director, Intelligence Project, Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Paul Kolbe is Director of The Intelligence Project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He previously served 25 years as an operations officer in the CIA and was a member of the Senior Intelligence Service, serving in Russia, the Balkans, Indonesia, East Germany, Zimbabwe, and Austria.
Some analysts argue that the United States should respond to the SolarWinds breach by focusing on improving defenses, rather than on conducting a retaliatory response such as some government officials have been advocating. Apunitive response to SolarWinds may be unwise because the available evidence indicates that the objective of the operation was national security espionage. However, this does not mean that the pursuit of deterrence strategies to address other types of malicious behavior in cyberspace, beyond espionage, is a fool’s errand. Deterrence is not a one-size-fits-all concept in cyberspace or in any other domain.
In a recent
Russia Matters article, Paul Kolbe argues that the United States should respond to the SolarWinds breach by focusing on improving defenses, rather than on conducting a retaliatory response such as some government officials have been advocating. Kolbe claims that prior U.S. responses to Russian cyber behavior which have involved imposing sanct
This event will be open to the public. Advance registration for both sessions is required.
The recent SolarWinds software attack, the debate over Huawei in global 5G networks, and the rise of the Internet of Things makes it increasingly apparent that the international supply chain is enormously vulnerable to attacks by foreign adversaries seeking to subvert and disrupt the critical infrastructure that makes up the backbone of democratic societies.
In a world were financial stability, energy supply, and communications reliability depends on a largely hidden ecosystem of devices, connections, and systems, it is necessary for us to better understand how these foundations of modern life and commerce can be exploited and undermined by adversaries. An insecure supply chain introduces insidious, pervasive risk.
Russia Analytical Report, March 22-29, 2021 russiamatters.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from russiamatters.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The administration will claim that the Russian hacking was not equivalent to the kind of espionage the U.S. also conducts, allowing it to sanction those responsible for the operation.