PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN ON THE CLOCK TO PROTECT US FROM RUSSIAN HACKERS

President Joe Biden

Like many kids born in the 40's, I grew up worried about the Russians.  

I feared Japanese bombers too, as my grandmother explained the blackout blinds on her windows, designed to keep the Japanese from seeing lights on in her house if they tried to bomb Seattle.

But, it was mainly the Russians I feared.

"I’ve learned to hate Russians

All through my whole life

If another war starts

It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side"

Bob Dylan, "With God on Our Side"

Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian President of my youth, seemed uncouth and dumb, if not unsanitary, taking off a shoe and banging it on a table at the U.N.

I remember being disappointed they didn't let Khrushchev see Disneyland, as I knew he'd be blown away, aware of how much better our country was, even though I'd never been to Disneyland myself.

So, now, in 2021, our country is still bothered by the Russians with Russian hackers interfering with some of our country's industries and governmental operations.

First of all, Russian meddling in our 2016 election and now this.

Apparently, President Biden has issued some kind of private ultimatum to Russia to control these hackers.

While I'm disappointed Biden limited his line in the sand to "16 infrastructure entities" he declared "off limits," Biden can't be as sissified as Trump, who consistantly accommodated Vladimir Putin like an emasculated lap dog. 

A close friend of mine, an ardent Trumper, brought up the "yellow showers" incident involving the former guy, allowing prositutes to urinate on him in a bedroom once occuped by President Obama, as if it were some fanciful, over-the-top report too incredible to believe.

I'm not so certain.  

The deference Trump always gave Putin syncs with Russia having SOMETHING on the guy.

But, now, my worry is Russian hacking and what Biden is going to do about it.

First of all:  why does Russia have so many hackers?

Dmitri Alperovitch, who emigrated from Russia at the age of 14 and is a so-called cyber expert, explains: 

I don’t think it’s anything specific to Russia. I think in some ways it’s analogous to why you had some of the early organized criminal groups evolve in Italy. Law enforcement was not taking action against those criminals early on, and it gave them a chance to learn to evolve, to develop sophisticated business schemes, and get really good over time. It’s not that cyber criminals don’t exist in the West or aren’t any good, it’s just that their shelf life in terms of staying out of jail is not very long.

Well, are these attacks from the Russian government or just rogue individuals/

DA: You have to separate the two. There are attacks that are being launched directly by Russian intelligence services and the Russian military; certainly the 2016 elections are part of that. Recent ransomware attacks, however, are separate. There’s no indication that they’re connected to the Russian government. It appears that these are simply criminals that are operating from Russia, but are provided safe haven by Russian law enforcement, in that they are not arresting them, they’re not prosecuting them, they’re not pressuring them to stop. This is in part probably because local officials, mid-level officials, in the Russian intelligence services and Russian law enforcement are likely getting payoffs from these people.

Alright.  

What are you going to do about this Joe?