David Sanger and Nichole Perlroth are two of the best writers on cyber because they have really good Washington sources. Because of that, I was a little surprised to see a story from them that points to Russian penetration of the US and European power grids. I had some of those stories in my first books nearly five years ago. Several countries have tried this, not just Russia. The objective is what the Russians see as battlefield preparation. If they are going to fight, taking down the power grid is a logical step. The Chinese threatened atmospheric explosion of a nuclear weapon which does the same thing.
I am against mixing this kind of activity with interference with the national election. It is not current, or new. Trying to use nerve gas to kill someone in another country is nasty, but not new either. What did the countries of Europe and the US do to North Korea when they did it? Russia has tried to interfere with US elections before using what they call active measures, but they were not made public until many years after they were done. Intelligence services knew about them but kept quiet. This is different because the Russian denials are paper thin and disclosed by both political parties. All that does is make Russia look good to the Russian speaking world. They love it, and may have helped promote it.
This is what happens when you stick your finger in the eye of your peers. They drag out everything you have been doing for the past few years and whack you over the head with it. They won’t love that, but it is justice of sorts.
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