The administration of US President Barack Obama yesterday was planning to announce a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking US political institutions and individuals, and leaking information in an effort to help US president-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates during last month’s election, two US officials said on Wednesday.
Both officials declined to specify what actions Obama had approved, but said targeted economic sanctions, indictments, leaking information to embarrass Russian officials or oligarchs, and restrictions on Russian diplomats in the US are among the steps that have been discussed.
One decision that has been made, they said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, is to avoid any moves that exceed the Russian election hacking and risk an escalating cyberconflict that could spiral out of control.
Photo: AFP
One example of an excessive step might be interfering with Russian Internet messaging.
The FBI, CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence agree that Russia was behind hacks into Democratic Party organizations and operatives ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.
There is also agreement that Russia sought to intervene in the election to help Trump defeat Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Russia has repeatedly denied hacking accusations. Trump has dismissed the assessments of the US intelligence community.
“We need to take action and we will” against Russia for interfering in the US election, Obama said in an interview earlier this month.
Trump seemed to suggest the US should not impose sanctions on Russia.
“I think we ought to get on with our lives,” Trump told reporters in Florida on Wednesday when asked about remarks by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin should expect tough sanctions for the cyberattacks.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova vowed retaliation on Wednesday against the US in the event of new economic sanctions.
Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said further sanctions might be an effective US tool in part because they would be difficult for Trump to roll back and because Russia “hates” dealing with them.
“For the rest of the world, it’s like having ‘scumball’ stamped on your forehead,” Lewis said.
How to respond to the growing problem of cyberattacks carried out or sponsored by foreign powers has bedeviled Obama, whose eight years in office witnessed a torrent of major hacks against the US government and private organizations that were attributed to China, North Korea, Iran and Russia.
In past cases, administration officials have decided to publicly blame North Korea and indict members of the Chinese military for hacking because they decided the net benefit of public shaming — and increased awareness brought to cybersecurity — outweighed the potential risks, but determining an appropriate response to Russia’s actions has proven more complicated in part because Russia’s cybercapabilities are more advanced and due to fears about disrupting other geopolitical issues, such as the civil war in Syria.
Obama might choose to invoke an April last year executive order that empowered him to levy sanctions in response to cyberattacks perpetrated by foreign groups targeting infrastructure or done for economic purposes.
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