Should America respond to the massive Russian cybr attack on solarwinds

This is going to change the internet as we know it.

This is Jim Kiler wrote:

This is going to change the internet as we know it.

This is a huge threat to our national security that few are talking about.

"Among those reportedly impacted so far include the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, the Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, and the technology company Microsoft.

On Friday, Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican senator and leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted that "America must retaliate, and not just with sanctions.""

Trump isn’t going to do anything because Putin has him in his pocket. He doesn’t mind the US being bent over by Russia. If this was China he might actually do something. Russia, nope just going to take it like a bottom.

Should we do something? Yes. Will we do something? Probably not until Jan 20th.

Let's hope in the near future; we all find out what Putin has on Traitor Don !! " Always remember Helsinki"

So Republicans want to retaliate. But if retaliation takes place it will be under Biden and of course he and the Democrat party will be accused of being warmongers.

coach wrote:

So Republicans want to retaliate. But if retaliation takes place it will be under Biden and of course he and the Democrat party will be accused of being warmongers.

I wonder if Marco Rubio is brave enough to complain to trump? After 1/20, then suddenly the Republicans will complain that Biden let Vladimir get away with it because he was weak.

I am not sure what we could do anyway.

He is on the way out.

The US spends over $700 bil a year in "national defense" and about $55 bil on homeland "security", yet a bunch of Russian hackers are able to get through just about every sensitive computer system in our government and a pandemic is ravaging the US like we are a hapless third world country with no infectious disease infrastructure.

Frankly, the US needs to surrender in the cyber wars. We should have a peace conference with all the big cyber war players and work out a treaty to end cyber attacks. Escalation will just mean that something really bad will happen. Cyber attacks to date have really just been about showing the other side that you can get inside their systems and not about actually causing damage to networks or using the access to cause real harm by shutting down power grids, etc. But if the US escalates, that is what will come next and real people will get hurt and maybe even die as a result. And that would just be idiotic. The US government completely failed at cyber defense. The Russians got in because we suck at cyber defense even though the US invented the internet and all the great tech companies are in the US. Shame on us. But lets get real and not turn this into another pretext for massive defense spending.

eye opening post

This is not even wrong.

Do you know the suffering the then Soviets went through to be victorious, WW2? Anything less than an all out fight is not going to change Russians. Leave them alone. What do you want to do, send in a drone armed with a missile? Send in a cruise missile? Leave Russians alone.

Agreed. We are spending massive amounts of money on ever more exotic weaponry that means squat if our critical infrastructure can be taken out with a few key strokes. I shudder to think what the Russians and others know about our capabilities/weaknesses from nearly four years of unfettered access to our innermost secrets. Come January, we need a full reset of our defense, diplomatic, and intelligence communities and a thorough housecleaning of any Trump loyalists still working there.

I am also saddened by the fact that I grew up during The Cold War and you could always count on the GOP to be the most fervent defenders of our nation against Soviet aggression. Democrats and Republicans could disagree on policy, spending priorities, and national direction but, they agreed on who our enemies were and keeping the nation safe from those adversaries. Today, many Republican stalwarts travel to Moscow on Independence Day to kiss up to Putin and find ways to make excuses for him whenever he misbehaves. Nothing has changed in Russia except the flag. The country is a mafia run state and the mafia is largely ex-KGB. I appears that many in the GOP (and probably some Dems) now value personal wealth and power over patriotism.

If the US does as you request and surrenders the cyber wars and forms a treaty with Russia what in the world makes you think that Russia would honor any such treaty. We know Russia would sign a treaty and then look to continue these attacks.

The US has to do something. You cant even get Russia to stop state sponsored doping by blocking them from the Olympics. Good luck with your cyberwarfare treaty.

That was the silly attitude when China-Korean Communist from the north crossed south of 38 latitude, 1950. That was the silly attitude when U.S. Special Forces were in SE Asia from 1958 to 1965 then Gulf of Tonkin then "US has to do something" had U.S. killing & dying in SE Asia to 1975.

Of course. Get a team of computer hackers and disable the websites for the media he controls.

We need to press Russia's militarily. Confrontations where we break the normal engagement rules in the air over north Pacific and anywhere our navies meet. See if they want to defend themselves. If they do, they will lose some expensive equipment and keeping losing it, until they back down. We still have the technical and numbers advantage.

We need to show anger and that we've reached a limit. Their behavior needs to be stopped. The whole country is at risk with this hack.

coach wrote:

So Republicans want to retaliate. But if retaliation takes place it will be under Biden and of course he and the Democrat party will be accused of being warmongers.

Oh no. The horror and injustice!

STFU

Mondo Hondo wrote:

We need to press Russia's militarily. Confrontations where we break the normal engagement rules in the air over north Pacific and anywhere our navies meet. See if they want to defend themselves. If they do, they will lose some expensive equipment and keeping losing it, until they back down. We still have the technical and numbers advantage.

We need to show anger and that we've reached a limit. Their behavior needs to be stopped. The whole country is at risk with this hack.

That sounds interesting. I believe the US has at least 10 aircraft carriers. If a ew are put into the area around Japan on the eastern part of Russia and then a few more in the Scandinavian area to the west of Russia, that would be all over the news. Russia would know it has stepped to far and that real threat is possible.

Now having said that, I take no issue with most Russian people. I have met some fine Russian people in my life and wish for no harm to come to them.

I do though believe that Russia has stepped to far in a number of instances. If their country has some ships on it's borders, that may spur internal movement against Putin, movement that ultimately he cannot supress. If Russian people get fed up enough, they'll storm the Kremlin and I believe his loyalists may give up. He can't maintain his control on the country. Impossible for him.