Russia hasn’t just hacked our computer systems. It’s hacked our minds.
The more we learn about the recent hack into dozens of America’s most critical computer networks — widely attributed to Russia — the more it becomes clear that it is massive, unprecedented and crippling. Tom Bossert, who served as homeland security adviser to President Trump, writes, “It will take years to know for certain which networks the Russians control and which ones they just occupy.” (We do know they successfully penetrated the Department of Homeland Security’s systems as well as those of Treasury, Commerce and others.) Stanford’s Alex Stamos describes it as “one of the most important hacking campaigns in history.” The New York Times’ David E. Sanger, who has written several books on cyberweapons, co-wrote an article calling the breach “among the greatest intelligence failures of modern times.”
Vladimir Putin’s Russia has significantly expanded its hybrid warfare, using new methods to spread chaos among its adversaries. The United States will have to fortify its digital infrastructure and respond more robustly to the Kremlin’s mounting cyberattacks. But what about the perhaps more insidious Russian efforts at disinformation, which have helped to reshape the information environment worldwide?
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