Cyber warfare is considered preferable to nuclear warfare. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
Quartz: The UK is practicing cyberattacks that could black out Moscow
British defense officials say they have practiced cyber war games that could shut off electricity in Russia’s capital, the Sunday Times (paywall) reports.
The measures are part of a wider range of strategies to hit back at an increasingly assertive Russia—accused of interfering with US elections, cyberattacks on Western targets, and poisoning a former spy on UK soil—without resorting to a full-blown nuclear attack.
“If they sank our aircraft carrier with a nuclear-tipped torpedo, what is our response? There’s nothing between sinking their submarine and dropping a nuclear weapon on northern Kamchatka,” one senior source told the Sunday Times. “This is why cyber is so important; you can go on the offensive and turn off the lights in Moscow to tell them that they are not doing the right things.”
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WNU Editor: The Kremlin has made it very clear in the past that they would view any state sponsored cyber attack on their infrastructure as an act of war. Is this a Kremlin red line? I would say yes. Then again, if the Russian military sinks an aircraft carrier and this is the U.K. response .... I would then say that the Kremlin has gotten off lightly.
7 comments:
"I would then say that the Kremlin has gotten off lightly."
If the grid is off long enough for food to spoil in freezers, etc the economic damage might be more than a carrier in cost.
If you can ruin the electrical equipment is destroyed in the process the harm might be much greater.
If you have the power off for 3 or more days across the US you would get mass riots by Democrats. Democrats may more thoroughly destroy a city than a nuke.
Democrats do have attempts at morality. Like the time a tween girl boosted a pair of Nike's from a store during a blackout and then complained that some guys stole them from her. That was in Time Magazine a long time ago. Time would not print the truth now.
Just have Maduro run Russia and the Brits would not think of hacking the Russian electrical grid.
It would be like "What grid?".
A cyber attack on infrastructure must be treated like an attack in the real world. If state sponsored, punish the state accordingly; if done by an individual or group, go after them. But do not treat cyber attacks and cyber espionage with kitty gloves. We, the West, have neglected this domain for too long and the mid east (Iran ) and east (north Korea and China ) have cost countless billions in damages (incl. Loss of strategic tech IP). We must enforce our laws because countries like China will otherwise exploit this as weakness, just as they have done for the last 2 decades. ..hacking or infrastructure and stealing our data has gone on long enough. If you steal IP that's important to our defence, we should have the right to kill them, just like Chinese kill our spies (but currently, Chinese spies in the US only have to worry about which nice car to buy next. .we are too soft on them. .silicon valley is filled with Chinese spies..the industrial spies who send home software libraries to boost their cousins business and the state spies who try to weaken or defense in many more ways). Time to clean it up and go after them. If they do not fear us and what we'll do to them (the spies and thieves here),we'll just be seen as weak and dumb in their eyes. Much like Russians, Chinese only understand and respect strength.
GOOD
As a Briton, I am sick to death of my Russophobic government and the hypocritical stunts it pulls.
If the Russian government made statements about practicing cyber attacks against us, then the wimps, old duffers and spivs in Westminster and the MOD would be squealing in shrill outrage.
Most of the people that I know think Russia is much less of a threat to our wellbeing than, say, Theresa May's incredible incompetence, or endless mass immigration.
But bashing the Russians is cheap and easy, so that's all the useless s-ds in government get around to doing.
if Russia were to sink an aircraft carrier that would mean that we're already at war because they aren't going to do it in a bolt out of the blue strike, like the Brits seem to be fantasizing about.
May's endless mass migration is horrible.
Even Mama Merkel promises to only bring in skilled immigrants. She promises; we will see.
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