The cyber thing
Trump continues to ignore, or even defend, online attacks and Russian spycraft.
In the final weeks of World War II, a friendly delegation of child ambassadors from the Soviet Union gifted the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with a 2-footwide wooden carving of the Great Seal of the United States. The memento of the Allied victory hung in the ambassador’s residential study for several years. Then, one fateful day, radio operators at the British Embassy started to pick up American conversations. It turned out that the wooden seal housed a secret, passive listening device that Western intelligence agencies deemed “The Great Seal Bug” or “The Thing.”
Today’s spycraft experts probably had this story on their minds as they watched President Donald Trump welcome the Russian Foreign Minister and Russian Ambassador into the Oval Office on Wednesday, alongside a member of the Russian state media and his photography equipment.
Every passing week brings news about cyberattacks on the United States and our allies, and yet Trump seems dedicated to ignoring or even defending the party responsible — Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Trump’s administration remained remarkably silent after the French presidential election was hit by a Russia-backed email hacking and digital assault that appeared to target the eventual winner, Emmanuel Macron.
“Complicating Trump’s silence is the fact that the president recently praised (Marine) Le Pen, who is friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Politico reporter Eric Geller wrote this week.
Without a strong response from the United States, what’s the incentive for the bad actors to stop?
The situation is exacerbated by Trump’s refusal to accept U.S. intelligence agency findings about Russian involvement. As former FBI special agent Clint Watts testified before Congress back in March, Trump even used Russian online propaganda to boost his election campaign.
These sorts of cyberattacks aren’t confined to the political realm. As Chronicle reporter Collin Eaton documented in a series, Houston’s energy industry remains a vulnerable and alluring target. How long until our city falls under the digital cross hairs of foreign agents running amok?
To his credit, Trump did sign a cybersecurity executive order this week, though it isn’t clear whether this is the anti-hacking plan that he had promised to release by April 20. Experts have described the order as a continuation of the Obama administration’s efforts. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., dismissed it as “more assessments, reports, and reviews” instead of “policy, strategy, and the resources to carry them out.”
The order is already too little, too late for a cyberattack that on Friday struck hospitals and businesses across dozens of nations using stolen National Security Agency hacking tools. Edward Snowden, an NSA leaker and whistleblower who lives in Moscow, pointed to Russia as likely responsible for the heist.
The United States waits for the FBI to complete an investigation into the Russian cyberattacks. However, that effort risks stalling after Trump fired the man in charge — James Comey.
So why did Trump show Comey the door?
“In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” he said in an interview with NBC.
Democrats and Republicans alike have a responsibility to resist Trump’s agenda until the American people can be reassured of a thorough and independent investigation into Russia’s online actions and intentions.
After the tidal wave of news during the past week, we can’t help but speculate whether some Russian agent left a modern-day Great Seal Bug in the Oval Office. But the real worry is whether the thing that makes our nation less safe was put there by the voters.
Every passing week brings news about cyber attacks on the United States and our allies, and yet Trump seems dedicated to ignoring or even defending the party responsible — Vladimir Putin’s Russia.