Obama's inconsistent reaction to foreign hacking

streiff:

To listen to the administration talk you’d be justified in thinking that the Russian hacking of the email accounts DNC and John Podesta (neither, which should be pointed out, are actually US government agencies) was something unusual and now Obama is really upset.

The sad fact is that Obama’s concern is selective outrage. Back in June of last year the now-incarcerated hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 hacked the DNC and retrieved the opposition research file on Donald Trump. A big yawn went through the White House. Why? Hillary Clinton was going to win. In August, Russian hackers attacked the voter registration systems in Arizona and Illinois. Obama went off to play golf or whatever he does when foreign countries are tampering with the electoral system. Why? Because Hillary was going to win.

And remember when this happened:

Two major breaches last year of U.S. government databases holding personnel records and security-clearance files exposed sensitive information about at least 22.1 million people, including not only federal employees and contractors but their families and friends, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The total vastly exceeds all previous estimates, and marks the most detailed accounting by the Office of Personnel Management of how many people were affected by cyber intrusions that U.S. officials have privately said were traced to the Chinese government.

But even beyond the rising number of apparent victims, U.S. officials said the breaches rank among the most potentially damaging cyber heists in U.S. government history because of the abundant detail in the files. Officials said hackers accessed not only personnel records of current and former employees but also extensive information about friends, relatives and others listed as references in applications for security clearances for some of the most sensitive jobs in government.

“It is a very big deal from a national security perspective and from a counterintelligence perspective,” FBI Director James B. Comey said at a meeting with reporters Thursday at the FBI headquarters. “It’s a treasure trove of information about everybody who has worked for, tried to work for, or works for the United States government.”

When you put all of these things on a continuum, John Podesta’s emails and the DNC emails rate about a 0.0001 and the OPM hack is like leventy. The OPM hack included background investigations for security clearances. In short, the Chinese got enough information to create 22.1 million American adults if they were in the identity fraud business. If you were ever denied a security clearance, the Chinese know why. If you have one, the Chinese know more about your background investigation than you do.
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When it comes to cyber warfare, Obama has been a big dud.  His response has been closer to "Thanks may I have another" than to genuine attempts to thwart the efforts of adversaries like Chine Russia and Iran.  It is genuinely hard to take him serious on the issue just because Hillary Clinton lost an election.