July 20, 2021
Cyberhacks: What does China have on Biden?
By
Monica Showalter
Anybody remember the bluster Joe Biden emitted when he 'confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin' over Russian hacking at his
June 16 Geneva summit?
“I made it very clear to him that the United States expects, when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is,” Biden told reporters.
Tough, tough, tough. And as far as public knowledge goes, it's not completely certain that the Russian state even organized the Russian criminal hacks. But they were held responsible, and were given, according to AP, "
a raft of sanctions."
Now we see some even more disruptive hacking from China, the massive hack on the Microsoft Exchange email server software on Feb. 24, which opened the gates to hackers of all sorts getting into 30,000 U.S. businesses to steal passwords and conduct ransomware operations.
What's Joe Biden's response?
In a word, nothing.
It puzzled even the
Associated Press:
Unlike in April,
when public finger-pointing of Russian hacking was paired with a raft of sanctions against Moscow, the Biden administration did not announce any actions against Beijing.
...
President Joe Biden told reporters “the investigation’s not finished,” and White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not rule out future consequences for China, saying, “This is not the conclusion of our efforts as it relates to cyber activities with China or Russia.”
Well, unless there's something we don't know, the Russian one isn't finished, either. But the Russkis got it in the teeth, and the Chicoms got off with a stern warning. Here's how bad it was:
Nonetheless, a senior administration official who briefed reporters said that the U.S. has confronted senior Chinese officials and that the White House regards the multination shaming as sending an important message, even if no single action can change behavior.
Ah, shaming. As if China's communist regime, which openly employs slave labor in Xinjiang, nakedly represses Hong Kong with goon squad activity, defies international law in the South China Sea, and has Hollywood, Big Sports and possibly the corporate media on its string, has any concern about "losing face" these days. 'Hain't we got the money?'
Such nonsense.
It also puzzled experts, such as Crowdstrike's former chief technology office, Dmitri Alperovich:
Given the scope of the attack, Alperovitch said it was “puzzling” that the U.S. did not impose sanctions.
“They certainly deserve it, and at this point, it’s becoming a glaring standout that we have not,” he said.
He added, in a reference to a large Russian cyberespionage operation discovered late last year, “There’s no question that the Exchange hacks have been more reckless, more dangerous and more disruptive than anything the Russians have done in SolarWinds.
It's strange indeed that the Bidenites even revealed the China involvement in the hack. Two reasons spring to mind as for why it was done.