Cyber failure
Trump and Obama administrations have dithered while online attacks continue.
Imagine if Pearl Harbor had been attacked and there was no response from Washington.
No “Date Which Will Live in Infamy” speech from the president.
No declaration of war from Congress.
No Doolittle Raid to show our national resolve.
That might as well describe our national reaction to the cyber attack during the 2016 election.
It might sound a bit hyperbolic, but this is what war looks like in the 21st century. Direct confrontations between developed nations have been rendered obsolete by the atomic bomb. Any sort of actual military conflict means mutually assured destruction. Instead, wars are now waged on the periphery: in proxy states, global economics, political culture and cyberspace. That was the lesson of the Cold War.
So make no mistake, Russia waged a cyberattack on the United States — and won.
The Russian government and related actors engaged in a sustained effort to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race, according to an astounding investigation by Washington Post reporters Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima and Adam Entous.
There are no bombs or bullets to present the war in bloody, undeniable terms. There are no body bags to usher a patriotic call to action. However, the goals remain the same as any war: Strengthen your own nation and weaken the enemy.
By any reasonable measure, the United States is weaker today because of cyberattacks on our election systems. Hackers broke into the computer networks of the Democratic and Republican parties without consequence. Politicians’ emails were stolen and dumped with the intent of undermining our representative government. State-level voter rolls were penetrated. Our standing across the world has precipitously fallen — except in Russia — according to a recent Pew report. Allies all over the globe, from Australia to Germany to South Korea, feel they can no longer rely on the United States to lead. Another cyberattack is inevitable.
What’s perhaps even more shocking, however, is the failure of both the Obama and Trump administrations to craft an adequate response.
The Obama administration deliberated for months on deterring Russia by launching our own cyberattacks, or issuing more economic sanctions, or releasing CIA-gathered material to embarrass Vladimir Putin. In the end, the riskaverse Barack Obama expelled some Russian ambassadors and forced the closure of two Russian compounds that were used for intelligencegathering purposes. He presumed that Hillary Clinton would win the election and take the next steps.
That didn’t happen. So what has Donald Trump done instead? He moved to reopen those Russian compounds.
Two years ago, in the wake of the massive hacking of the Office of Personnel Management, we warned that the United States had to play to win in cyberwar, or be prepared for defeat.
Judging by this administration, we should expect defeat. The deadline of an executive order on cybersecurity standards came and went on Sunday, according to Politico, and no agencies submitted required reports on their “international cyber-security priorities.” Meanwhile, key cybersecurity positions remain unfilled.
How can we play to win if Trump refuses to recruit a team?
Things are going to get worse before they get better. An international cyberattack crippled computer systems across the world on Tuesday. The United States was not immune. Drug manufacturer Merck and multinational law firm DLA Piper were hit. However, the most terrifying victim of the attack was radiation monitoring at the Chernobyl nuclear facility in Ukraine.
What will it take to convince our lawmakers that we’re in the midst of a global cyberwar — and losing? Do we have to wait for the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud?