Are we at war yet? And what could we do if we were?
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In what was apparently a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS), Health and Human Services Department computers were hit by unknown cyber-assailants on Sunday night in an attempt to impede the department's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Business Insider reports:
An HHS spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Business Insider that it is investigating a "significant increase in activity" on its cyber infrastructure Sunday night, adding that its systems have remained fully operational.
"HHS has an IT infrastructure with risk-based security controls continuously monitored in order to detect and address cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities," HHS spokesperson Caitlin Oakley told Business Insider. "Early on while preparing and responding to COVID-19, HHS put extra protections in place. We are coordinating with federal law enforcement and remain vigilant and focused on ensuring the integrity of our IT infrastructure."
According to Bloomberg, although the attack was unsuccessful, it is being treated as a national security matter:
“We are aware of a cyber incident related to the Health and Human Services computer networks, and the federal government is investigating this incident thoroughly,” John Ullyot, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “HHS and federal government cybersecurity professionals are continuously monitoring and taking appropriate actions to secure our federal networks.”
He said “HHS and federal networks are functioning normally at this time.”
Not yet known, or at least not yet made public, is the identity of the attacker. Bloomberg also reports that "while a foreign state is suspected in the attack, the administration hasn’t yet confirmed who it was." If it was a state actor like China or Russia (just to name two out of many possibilities), an attack like last night's might be rightly considered an act of war.
In the work I mentioned in a previous post, “The Second After”, an unknown state actor sets off an EMP that destroys the country. Or the US thinks it’s a state actor; it could also have been triggered by any one of a handful of terrorist groups. In the end, it doesn’t make sense to strike back, because there’s no way of telling who to retaliate against (putting aside the futility of “striking back” when it’s too late to prevent the destruction anyway).
Hmmm.
