Dept. of Homeland Security: Russia is still trying to hack the U.S.
The U.S. government says that Russia has targeted the U.S. power grid, supposedly as protocol for its new sanctions.
The Department of Homeland Secured released details about this on Thursday, March 15, 2018.
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As reported by CNN, The Trump administration announced extensive sanctions against Russia on Thursday morning, which included sanctions on the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that produced divisive political posts on American social media platforms during the 2016 presidential election.
According to the DHS, Russia accessed US government networks by initially targeting with malware small commercial third-party networks that were less secure.
Russia has attempted to attack targets that include “energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors” since March 2016, DHS said.
Past Issues With Russia Trying To Hack The U.S.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time the U.S. has had to deal Russia’s compulsion to hack into U.S. infrastructures.
In 2016, Barack Obama issued an executive order in retaliation for the Russian hacking that took place during the election.
In issuing the order, the administration described the Russian activities as “Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” sanctioning six Russian individuals and five Russian entities and ordering Russian diplomats out of the country.
In a statement, the White House said the hacking was “unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
“Russia’s cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government,” the statement said. “These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Obama also issued a statement detailing the ouster of the diplomats, saying they and their families had been given 72-hour notice to leave.
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“These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior,” Obama said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said the sanctions were “overdue,” and an “appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia.”
“Russia does not share America’s interests,” he said in a statement Thursday. “In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world. While today’s action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia. And it serves as a prime example of this administration’s ineffective foreign policy that has left America weaker in the eyes of the world.”
