Russian interference shows just how behind the times we are...

[Locut0s]

Russia and many other powerful adversaries have understood one thing for a long time now. Traditional modes of intimidation, espionage, and military might don't work as well against the US for the simple reason that the US simply outspends the rest of the world. So they have been heavily investing in other, more non traditional modes of influence. But the US has become complacent and still thinks because they are the 10,000 lbs gorilla on the world stage and because they outspend everyone by 10x, instead of giving their populous healthcare, that they don't really have to worry to much about traditional threats. Terrorism is of course what has come to consume almost all counter intelligence expenditure, that and vast sums wasted on wars in the Middle East.

In my not be the cold war anymore but the titans of Russia and China haven't been sitting idly quiet all this time. They have been investing in the future. The modern world is electronic, it's online. And there are no national boundaries online. There are no borders you have to cross to hack into servers anywhere in the old. The infrastructure that runs the internet is hidden from us and is extremely widely disseminated. Web sites are hosted on servers across the globe. Virtual security is only as strong as the IT teams in charge. It's only fort Knox if you have the right people in charge who understand the threats. There are no physical barriers, no weapons, no conventional means of deterrent.

Anyone from an 16 year old script kiddy hacker to a Russian spy can take down web sites and compromise online data. In the context of international espionage this is scary shit, we aren't talking the inconvenience of not being able to access eBay for a few hours. We are talking not necessarily knowing if the primary sources of the news we read is necessarily accurate, or fabricated. Indeed it doesn't even need to be fabricated. Subtle changes in what we see presented to us, just small tweaks, can have dramatic impacts on what people know and their perceptions.

While it's true that russian hacking has been widely reported and indeed it's less and less argued THAT it occured, only to what extent. It's also true that the news hadn't been delivered with the urgency it needs to be. Because this kind of thing is really only one step removed from an act of war. I'm not suggesting we should go to war over it, but that's the tone that needs to be set and it's only been done so occasionally. I bet you anything Russia sees it this way. They see this as a way of attacking the US.

[Ilsa]

1. We need to stop reinventing the wheel on solving our problems.

Other countries have answers to what works. Maybe we need to look externally at what works and adapt it to our circumstances. This is true for healthcare, environmental protections, hacking, etc.

[yurbud]

2. it's asymmetrical warfare. Also, Pentagon doesn't seem to ask...

is there a cheaper way to do this?

[ProudLib72]

3. I'm not sure about this

I think we have damned good security firms in this country. The difference is Russia's nationalization of its online resources. It seems like a pretty simple method. The State doesn't know crap about the internet, but they know the experts exist. Why not just hire them to do the State's bidding? They also have a bad economy, so those people who are offered a good job are more likely to accept. The plus side of all this is that these experts are individuals or small businesses who will be difficult to connect back to the State. In reality, this is a multi-tiered system, but it breaks down to this in its simplest form, the way the State envisioned it.

We have private companies that are quite capable of tearing Russia apart. That's not the problem. The problem is two-fold. First, does Dotard want these companies to engage his Russian buddies in an online war? No. He doesn't, so he pretends that everything is under control and he is on top of security. The second issue is how willing these private companies are to work with the government. In the future, that will be the sticking point. With the multi-tiered Russian system, I think there was a lot of autonomy. Will we let these companies working for us have autonomy?

Like you said, this is a new frontier for us and we are pretending that physical strength is still sufficient when it is not. Russia has definitely adapted to the times. Whether or not we can adapt quickly will depend on how long Dotard remains emperor and how well our intelligence community and legislative branch gets along with private firms. Our government doesn't know enough and doesn't have the resources to handle this on its own. We need to outsource (within this country. What's that called, "near shore sourcing"?). Surrounding themselves with dedicated private companies who are reliable, knowledgeable, and fast is the best way to proceed.