United States: Russian Hackers Seeking to Infiltrate America's Water and Power Networks

The United States has accused the Russian government for the first time of systematically targeting America's power and water networks and other critical infrastructure with a cyber attack campaign. A security advisory released by the U.S. on Thursday, March 16, states that Russian government hackers are seeking to infiltrate various infrastructure sectors in the U.S., particularly those that American consumers rely on for their daily needs. The statement adds that these hacking attacks began in March 2016 or earlier and have targeted the energy, nuclear, aerospace, and industrial sectors of the United States. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department has stated that these Russian cyber attacks are one of the reasons the United States imposed a new round of sanctions against Russia on Thursday. The Trump administration announced on Thursday (March 15) that it has sanctioned five Russian entities and 19 individuals in connection with Russia's interference in the U.S. elections. The new sanctions are based on a law passed by the U.S. Congress last summer, although the deadline given to the Trump administration for implementing this law expired a month and a half ago. Regarding cyber attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have issued a warning statement indicating that a 'multi-faceted infiltration campaign by Russian government cyber actors' has also targeted small business facilities, deploying malware against them and successfully taking control of the energy networks of these facilities remotely. The statements indicate that the FBI and the 'Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency' have concluded that the ultimate goal of these hackers is to jeopardize the 'organizational networks' of the United States. U.S. intelligence officials say these cyber attacks could cause 'significant damage' to the U.S. economy by creating widespread blackouts and major disruptions in the transportation system or the internet. Reports suggest that the Russian hackers' breach that occurred on March 15 did not apparently cause widespread disruptions. However, U.S. officials have been concerned about such attacks on American soil since Russian hackers managed to cause power outages for hundreds of thousands of citizens in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016. Additionally, U.S. officials believe that the infamous cyber attack known as 'NotPetya,' which occurred in June 2017 and inflicted the largest and most costly damage in history on global businesses, was carried out by the Russian military. According to U.S. Treasury officials, the 'NotPetya' virus spread rapidly worldwide and caused billions of dollars in damage by crippling computers in shipping, trade, health, and other industries. U.S. intelligence officials recently announced that the Kremlin apparently believes it can launch hacking operations against the West without fear of significant retaliatory actions. Russia denies any involvement in hacking operations against the systems of other countries.