Hacker group blocking pipeline tied to Russia

 Tom Rogan:

Do you want Vladimir Putin to control whether and when you have power?

I ask that question because the compromise of Colonial Pipeline was very likely authorized by the Kremlin.

That matters because DarkSide is responsible for last week's ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, which provides nearly half of the East Coast's fuel supply. DarkSide has demanded a significant payment at risk of its disrupting Colonial's operations. Colonial has now shut down its operations, leading to a national emergency.

But here's the rather important thing. While DarkSide and similarly boutique, high-capability Russia-based or supervised hacking groups are not explicit members of the Russian intelligence apparatus, they operate under the functional authority of the Russian state. As I understand the situation, because the Kremlin knows that the United States knows that groups such as DarkSide operate with the Russian state's tacit approval, the Kremlin establishes boundaries for what these hacking groups can and cannot do. The crossover of Russian state hackers and Russian nonstate hackers such as DarkSide is far greater than commonly understood. It is possible that at least some of DarkSide's members are former Russian intelligence officers.

Context also matters.

Concerned that the Biden administration may increase the sanctions portfolio applied against Russia, Putin is escalating against U.S. interests. Russia is heavily suspected of responsibility for radio frequency attacks against U.S. government personnel. But senior Russian officials have, in recent weeks, begun explicitly referencing "asymmetric" retaliation to U.S. sanctions.

This DarkSide attack would fit near-perfectly with those threats. Conducted by nonstate actors, the hack offers Putin the means to exert major pressure against the U.S. with at least the pretense that the Kremlin isn't responsible. It is thus crucial that the U.S. not entertain that pretense.

This is a major escalation against U.S. interests, one that almost certainly would not have occurred without the Kremlin's approval. I believe further reporting will bear this out.

Put simply, Putin is seeing whether the U.S. will dance to Russia's waltz, agreeing that these attacks are criminal acts rather than state-sanctioned terrorist attacks. Agreeing, too, that the Department of Justice should issue charges, rather than the Russian energy grid suffer reciprocal U.S. disruption.

Biden cannot afford to accept that understanding. This attack threatens the energy supplies depended on by perhaps 100 million Americans. Unless Russia immediately arrests and extradites DarkSide's team, and not simply some random other hackers, Biden should direct the National Security Agency to retaliate in kind against Russia's energy infrastructure. It is imperative to U.S. national security that Russia not believe itself capable of using the state versus nonstate "gray zone" to endanger millions of American lives and livelihoods.

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The way to call Putin's bluff is to demand that he take action against the hackers so that they can be brought to justice in the US.  Judging by Biden's demeanor to date and that of the people on his team they are not ready to blame this on the Russians. This is from a team that falsely went along with trying to tie Hunter's laptop to the Russians.  They are willing to make up excuses for Hunter's conduct and blame it on the Russians while so far ignoring a direct threat from Russian criminal hackers.