‘Grave’ Russian Hack of US Government a Possible ‘Act of War’ Says Expert

We can’t say that we weren’t warned, and we can’t deny that we probably knew better.

Russia has once again been accused of interfering with life here in the USA, this time employing a long-term hacking strategy to gain access to several federal agencies here in the United States – some of which are responsible for things like our nuclear weapons.

The hack story has evolved over the course of the last several days, and was previously considered a “grave” situation.

On Friday, even stronger language began to circulate.

In unusually vivid language for a bureaucracy, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of Homeland Security, said yesterday that the intruder “demonstrated sophistication and complex tradecraft.”

The agency said the breach “poses a grave risk to the Federal Government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations.”

And then…

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC: “It’s pretty hard to distinguish this from an act of aggression that rises to the level of an attack that qualifies as war. … [T]his is as destructive and broad scale an engagement with our military systems, our intelligence systems as has happened in my lifetime.”

Experts are concerned that Russia’s lengthy access to these networks may have allowed them to install a backdoor as well, meaning that eliminating the previously-infected hardware may not be enough to keep Putin’s minions out.