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Forget about upholding and protecting the Constitution — when is the president of the United States going to start protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure and control systems?
Cyberattacks put Russian fingers on the switch at power plants, U.S. says
by Nicole Perlroth, David E. Sanger, The New York Times; Anchorage Daily News — 3/16/2018
The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of engineering a series of cyberattacks that targeted U.S. and European nuclear power plants and water and electric systems, and could have sabotaged or shut off power plants at will.
U.S. officials and private security firms saw the attacks as a signal by Moscow that it could sabotage the West's critical facilities in the event of a conflict.
They said the strikes accelerated in late 2015, at the same time the Russian interference in the U.S. election was underway. The attackers successfully had compromised some operators in North America and Europe by spring 2017, after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.
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Russian cyberattacks surged last year, starting three months after Trump took office.
Meanwhile back on the Cyber-clueless ‘ranch’.
July 9, 2017 — www.latimes.com
President Trump's touting of a proposed partnership with Russia on cybersecurity drew withering reviews Sunday from lawmakers, including several from his own party, while the president's aides were left struggling to answer questions about just how hard Trump pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Moscow's meddling in last year's U.S. presidential election.
Late Sunday, Trump appeared to back away from the cyber-partnership idea.
The world should know what Russia is capable of … so too, should the U.S. President ...
March 16, 2018 — www.cnn.com
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In 2015 Ukraine experienced an unprecedented cyberattack on its electric grid that led to widespread power outages, which it said was caused by Russia. The attack raised concerns about vulnerabilities in the US system that could make it a victim of similar attacks.
If you’re planning to cripple an economy, a society, a people — you first need a smaller Trial run. Every super-villian knows that … Ukraine was Putin’s ‘Trial run’ …
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Ukrainian authorities have blamed Russia for the outage, saying it was part of the Russian government's pattern of undeclared war against its neighbor. Almost immediately, investigators found indications of a malware called BlackEnergy.
The U.S. sent experts from the Energy and Homeland Security departments, as well as the FBI, to assist the Ukrainians in their investigation.
What the U.S. investigators found was an unprecedented cyberwarfare attack, the U.S. official told CNN.
[...]
Apparently Putin, like rust, never sleeps. This foreign adversary has gotten ‘the keys to the western kingdom’ — all without the direct help of the Donald, anyways …
Of course that indirect help of Trump, has let Putin extend his base of cyber-power … unchecked, unabated …
by Brennan Weiss, Business Insider — 3/16/2018
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Russian hackers installed malware on vital energy networks and conducted spear phishing operations to gain entry into US computer systems operating a wide range of commercial facilities and nuclear plants, the report said.
Although the hackers didn't inflict any physical damage, the report's findings indicate that they had the capabilities to do so by manipulating control systems and shutting down power plants with relative ease.
"We now have evidence they're sitting on the machines, connected to industrial control infrastructure, that allow them to effectively turn the power off or effect sabotage," Eric Chien, a cybersecurity expert at Symantec, a digital security firm, told The New York Times. "From what we can see, they were there. They have the ability to shut the power off. All that's missing is some political motivation."
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Maybe that’s why Trump has not stood up to Putin — because Trump knows (firsthand) what kind of super-Spy-Villian, the guy really is?
Or perhaps it’s just the krompromat that Putin has on Trump?? And these ongoing cyber-threats, are just the incidental costs … of Trump ‘doing the Business of on America’?
Business, like offering Vlad the passwords to our country’s cyber-resources … How about a Russian-US “cyber-partnership” anyone?
WHAT could possibly go wrong?
Putin shut-down the Ukraine power grid a few years ago — what’s to stop him from shutting down the USA’s ???
Donald the freaking Moron Trump? That’s worked out so well (in Putin’s favor) so far.