It’s very difficult, perhaps impossible, to determine where a top-notch hack originates. From Ray McGovern at antiwar.com:
Buffeted on all sides, from the unceremonious (literally) departure from Afghanistan to various cyber crimes blamed on Russia, President Biden is being challenged by the likes of the New York Times’s David Sanger to show he has cojones (free translation from Spanish – manliness). ( See: Biden Weighs a Response to Ransomware Attacks.
Will Biden let himself be shamed into taking “some kind of visible action” against Russia; something much stronger than just another “verbal warning”? What could possibly go wrong?
The answer? A whole lot can go wrong. Even the Times article, while taunting Biden to show he’s a man, includes a trace of responsible maturity (yes, you must read down to paragraph 21, but it’s there) by including this caution: “… although the U.S. may possess what Mr. Biden calls ‘significant cybercapability’”, using it offensively runs serious risk.
The Times warns that the US”is also more vulnerable to cyberattacks than most nations because it is so digitized, and most of its critical infrastructure is owned by businesses that have not adequately invested in their digital defense. Thus, any escalation risks blowback.” In addition, the Times typically plays down the many key uncertainties regarding the perpetrators of the cyber crimes.
