President Donald trump has a quite different reaction against countries who commit hacking attacks on the United States: he sharply criticizes China, and Russia all descends from hands.
This difference in attitude becomes even more obvious now, because trump is considering whether to lift sanctions imposed against Russia by former President Barack Obama in connection with its alleged interference in the presidential elections in 2016. It is also of great concern of experts and congressmen who argue that, if we talk about the two main opponents of the United States in cyberspace, a hacking operation of Russia was much more provocative.
Trump has repeatedly accused China of conducting two large-scale hacker attacks, which were stolen personal data of more than 20 million current and former employees of Federal agencies. It is worth noting that the Obama administration refused to publicly blame China for these attacks. Meanwhile, Trump and his advisors took three months to listen to the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that the Russian government is behind the hacks of the Democratic party systems and stealing e-mails, which ultimately had a negative impact on the election campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Although cyber attacks from Russia and China was equally serious, high-ranking lawmakers from both parties called hacker attacks on Russia in the pre — election period and the subsequent publication of the stolen documents — an attack on American democracy. However, trump repeatedly ridiculed the attempts of the intelligence community to lay the blame on the regime of Vladimir Putin, once even saying that the hacker that hacked into the system of the Democratic party, could be anyone, “someone on the couch weighing in at 400 pounds.”
Trump “did not hesitate to criticize China,” said Senator Ben Cardin (Ben Cardin), a Democrat, included in the suck of the Senate Committee on foreign relations. But “he always believed that [the case with] Russia is bound to have a different explanation.”
From the point of view of Cardin and other Democrats, such differences in relation to Russia and China may be evidence that the reaction of the tramp to cyber attacks from foreign States can influence his domestic goals.
“It’s very frightening,” said Cardin.
Democrats and even some Republicans — have expressed bewilderment in connection with the reversal of trump and his team to China at the time when he had to make a decision on the Russian cyber operations. From their point of view, it can be called subversive tactics.
“This is a political attempt to divert attention from the seriousness of hacker attacks of Russia to our electoral system, — said a member of the house of representatives Adam Schiff (Adam Schiff), a member of the house Committee on intelligence. — It indicates that trump has a different relationship with Russia and China.”
At the same time, many Republicans see rhetoric trump against China signs of a refreshing change, arguing that Obama was wrong, but says nothing about the role of Beijing in the theft of sensitive data of the personnel Department of the United States.
“There are certain rules and China violated them,” said a member of the house of representatives Peter king (Peter King), who heads a Subcommittee on counterintelligence and terrorism, Senate Committee on national security.
Some experts on security issues, as well as management of intelligence called the identity theft of employees traditional espionage — that is what the US is trying to fight it, but that is not a threat to international norms.
Obama is somewhat sharper reacted to the cyber attack on the economic assets of the United States. For example, the Ministry of justice has opened a criminal case against five members of the people’s liberation army of China accused of hacking attacks on American companies. But neither Obama nor his intelligence Agency has never publicly accused China of hacker attacks on the office of personnel Management, despite the fact that they is hinting.
Trump behaved quite differently. He and his top aides regularly accuse China of hacking attacks on the office of personnel Management, when it comes to Russia’s role in the hacking of the electoral system of the United States.
“China hacked 22 million accounts in the United States,” said trump earlier in January in response to a question on this subject during the press conference he gave, being elected President.
“When the Chinese broke into the office of personnel Management, we never found out what happened after that,” said Raines. Priebus (Reince Priebus), who now holds the position of head of administration trump, during his interview in early January.
Even representatives of the Cabinet of trump trying to divert the conversation from hacker attacks Russia to China.
When Senator Jeff and Roman sessions (Jeff Sessions) proposed by trump’s attorney General, was asked how he would respond to cyber-aggression of Moscow, he said, “it May happen — as happened in the case of theft by the Chinese of hundreds of thousands and perhaps even millions of personal documents — that this matter should be resolved at the political level.”
According to experts in the field of cybersecurity, this approach trump may be a harbinger of how his administration would behave in the respect of foreign governments suspected of digital surveillance: the U.S. will publicly condemn only those countries that do not like Trump.
“This clearly indicates that the strategy will change,” said Ian Wallace (Ian Wallace), co-Director of the Cybersecurity Initiative at New America, a think-tank founded by one of the former officials of the Obama administration.
Trump’s supporters hope the changes will be more pronounced willingness to confront China. During the election campaign trump regularly vehemently critical of Beijing, accusing it of manipulating its currency to harm American companies.
The heads of the intelligence agencies supported the moderate reaction of the administration to compromise systems of the personnel Department, warning that, if you start to give publicity to traditional espionage activities, it may trigger a devastating cycle of “an eye for an eye.” They noted that the US also has a very impressive spy camera.
“People living in houses with glass walls, have to think well before you throw stones, because it was an act of espionage”, — said earlier in January, the then Director of National intelligence James Clapper (James Clapper) at the meeting of the Senate Committee on intelligence.
Obama publicly took retaliatory measures against countries breaking into systems the USA, only a few times, including its decision to impose sanctions against Russia in connection with its intervention in the presidential election and the criminal case against hackers, Chinese military structures. His administration also imposed economic reprisals against North Korea for its destructive hacking attack on the company Sony Pictures Entertainment and presented an indictment against Iranian-backed hackers accused of penetration into the US financial system and control system dam in the state of new York.
Many experts in the field of cyber security believe that the restrained reaction of the Obama administration on the hacking of the personnel Department helped her to conclude with the Beijing agreement in 2015 in which Obama and Chinese leader XI Jinping (Xi Jinping) has promised that their countries will not hack into systems to each other for commercial gain. According to experts, since there was a decline in the number of hacker attacks on Chinese American businesses.
“In fact, we have received from China a lot of what they wanted,” said one former senior White house official.
However, some experts warn that Beijing may simply have changed tactics, or was better to hide the traces of their activities.
Congressmen and technical experts say that it is difficult to predict what will be the response of the administration to trump to hacker attacks. According to some, including Wallace and Schiff, trump’s rhetoric toward China is not necessarily an indicator of the new policy.
Trump and his team almost nothing to say about the strategy of their policies in the field of cyber security, although trump has promised to “make priority” increasing efficiency of digital American weapons and protection systems from hacker attacks.
“We will prepare a serious report on the systems of protection from hackers, how are we going to stop this new phenomenon,” trump said at the January press conference, held before his inauguration. Then he added: “Because the United States hacked by all who can”.
