Refusal to accept reality of Russian hacking hobbles U.S. cyber defense efforts: Experts

Cyber experts say that Trump’s refusal to accept the reality of the 2016 Russian government hacking and disinformation campaign is creating a dangerous policy vacuum. This vacuum, the security experts fear, is only encouraging more cyber warfare.

The Jakarta Globe reports that in the past three months, hackers breached the official websites in Qatar to insert a fake news story, thus helping to create a Gulf regional crisis; suspected North Korean-backed hackers paralyzed British hospitals with ransomware; and a cyberattack by Russian government hackers deleted data on thousands of computers in the Ukraine.

The governments of Britain, France, and Germany have publicly and pointedly accused Russia of trying to undermine the democratic systems in their countries processes, but the other twenty-six members of the 29-member NATO have been dragging their feet when it comes publicly to accuse Russia of cyber-meddling.

No Western leader, however, has done what Trump has done: publicly disparage and ridicule the U.S. intelligence services’ professional assessment of Russian practices and methods.

And no other Western leader has used Putin’s denial of Russian meddling as “proof” that the intelligence services were wrong.

“The White House is currently embroiled in a cyber crisis of existential proportion, and for the moment probably just wants ‘cyber’ to go away, at least as it relates to politics,” said Kenneth Geers, a security researcher who until recently lived in Ukraine and works at NATO’s think tank on cyber defense. “This will have unfortunate side effects for international cybersecurity.”

Experts say that not calling out the perpetrators makes it inevitable that more hacking attacks will come.

“I see no dynamics of deterrence,” said ex-White House cybersecurity officer Jason Healey, now at Columbia University.

Analysts note that the reluctance by the White House to confront Russia over Russian government hacking has spread beyond the Whited House. At the end of July, Chris Painter, the official responsible for coordinating U.S. diplomacy on cybersecurity, will leave his position, and no replacement has been named. Moreover, news emerged that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is considering abolishing the State Department unit responsible for dealing with cybersecurity.

The White House said that the administration will replace the Obama era’s strategy of trying to build global cyber norms and rules of conduct, and instead focus on negotiating bilateral agreements. Following the two meetings between Trump and Putin ad the G20 conference, the administration announced it was discussing with Russia the creation of a cybersecurity group, but the proposal was met with harsh criticism in Congress. Lawmakers said that the proposal would amount to inviting the fox to guard the henhouse.

Another manifestation of what critics describe as the administration’s lack of interest in pursuing a broad and determined cybersecurity strategy is the administration’s minimal presence at the Black Hat and Def Con security conferences being held this week in Las Vegas. Past administration sent heavy weights from DHS, the NSA, and other agencies to these conferences to discuss cybersecurity policies and initiatives.

Reuters reports that the policy vacuum left by the administration has also had a chilling effect on private security firms. Many private firms say they have grown more careful in publicly attributing cyberattacks to nation-states for fear of drawing fire from the Trump administration.

For example, in an April interview, Trump raised questions about the trustworthiness of the security firm CrowdStrike, which investigated the hack of the Democratic National Committee by Russian government hackers. Trump said he was told the company was controlled by a Ukrainian. Trump’s charge was false. The company is not controlled by a Ukrainian.

Security experts are alarmed by the fact that the United States and NATO failed to respond to the destructive NotPetya attack the Russian government launched against Ukraine in June. 

Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that the lack of response by the United States and NATO only invites more attack.

Others agree. “If you are not ringing alarm bells in an eloquent way, then I think you’re dropping the ball,” said retired CIA officer Daniel Hoffman, who worked on Russian issues. “When we fail to do enough, that just emboldens them.”