Foreign Entities Scanning Our Critical Infrastructure - Attack on Homeland Imminent?
As if our national security weren’t already compromised because of President Joe Biden’s refusal to protect the U.S. southern border, Americans now have to fear more cyberattacks by foreign adversaries targeting U.S. power grids.
According to a March 18 FBI bulletin reviewed by CBS News, Russia is considering launching cyberattacks specifically targeting the energy sector.
The bulletin said Russia-based IP addresses began scanning critical U.S. infrastructure as early as March 2021 — two months after Biden was installed in the White House.
However, the FBI said the scanning has escalated since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“This scanning activity has increased since the start of the Russia/Ukraine conflict, leading to a greater possibility of future intrusions,” the bureau’s bulletin said, according to CBS News.
The FBI said that while scanning is not necessarily a precursor to a hack, U.S. energy companies should take defensive measures.
“US Energy Sector entities are advised to examine current network traffic for these IP addresses and conduct follow-on investigations if observed,” the alert read.
Four days after the bulletin was issued, FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency was collaborating with the private sector to deter potential cyberattacks.
Wray made the revelations in a March 22 speech before the Detroit Economic Club.
The agency head underscored that the United States is vulnerable to cyberattacks not only from Russia but also from Iran, China and North Korea.
“We’re seeing both profit-minded criminals and nation-state adversaries, and sometimes the two working in a toxic tandem, attacking or threatening those hurt-us-at-home targets,” Wray said. “But we’ve also got to keep a close eye on other nations with a history of threatening us, not just Russia and Iran.”
He continued: “We’ve seen North Korea take destructive cyber action as well, and the Chinese government has hacked more than a dozen U.S. oil and gas pipeline operators, not just stealing their information but holding them, and all of us, at risk — an awfully dangerous threat from a massive, sophisticated hacking program that’s bigger than those of every other major country combined.”
You cannot make this up.
Biden gave Putin list of 16 critical infrastructure ‘entities’ that must be off-limits to cyberattacks https://t.co/CBhZwbyewO
— Chris Bish (@BishForCongress) June 20, 2021
Nine months ago, Biden gave Putin a list of U.S. entities “off limits” to Russian cyberattacks…
Today, Biden warns: “Russia may be planning a cyberattack against us…it’s coming.” ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/itQnuzawOV
— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) March 21, 2022
Wray then referenced the May 2021 ransomware cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, during which hackers stole the personal data — including the Social Security numbers and health insurance information — of 6,000 American customers.
Colonial is a private pipeline that supplies 45 percent of the oil used on the East Coast. The company eventually paid $4.4 million in bitcoin to the blackmailing hackers to restore normal operations.
The Eastern Europe hacking syndicate DarkSide was responsible for the ransomware attack.
“All of you will likely remember when Colonial Pipeline, one of our nation’s largest oil pipelines, got hit by a ransomware attack by the DarkSide hacking group last year,” Wray said.
“In the days that followed, people across the Southeast panicked, and gas stations all the way up to D.C. completely ran out of gas. The president had to declare a state of emergency. If that’s not a hurt you feel at home, I don’t know what is.”
Wray then spouted the usual batch of platitudes claiming the FBI and the Biden administration are working hard to protect U.S. power grids because cyberwarfare on them and other critical infrastructure poses a dire national security threat.
Frankly, it’s hard to take our intel agencies and this White House seriously vis-à-vis national security when the southern border is being invaded daily by unvetted armies of illegal aliens and liberal cities are under siege by criminal thugs.
Biden cannot manage these basic domestic issues, but his administration claims it can safeguard our power grids from foreign cyberattacks. What a joke.
Just ask Nicolas Chaillan, who was the Air Force’s first chief software officer.
In September 2021, Chaillan resigned in protest, saying U.S. cyberdefenses were at “kindergarten level” and made America an easy target for large-scale hacking operations that could cripple the nation’s infrastructure and banking systems.
Chaillan, who was appointed in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, said it was pointless for him to continue in his position given the U.S. military’s warped priorities.
The sad truth, he said, is that communist China soon will supplant America as the world’s pre-eminent superpower because it’s already on track to overtake the United States when it comes to cyberwarfare.
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years,” Chaillan told the Financial Times in October. “Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over, in my opinion.”
The Biden administration seems focused on combating climate change and promoting transgenderism rather than protecting the homeland.
Combating #climate change is vital to building enduring advantage. We are investing more than $3 billion to create platform efficiencies, deploy new technologies, and harden our critical infrastructure, fully aligned w/ our warfighting needs & mission objectives. .@DeptofDefense pic.twitter.com/WwN34YjglS
— Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks (@DepSecDef) April 3, 2022
Today is #TransDayofVisiblity–Check out @UnderSecAF Jones talk with Lt. Col. Bree Fram, highest-ranking openly transgender @DeptofDefense officer, about her role as the Deputy Chief of Acquisitions Policies and Process Division for the @SpaceForceDoD.https://t.co/cT1AOZmp4H pic.twitter.com/971RJIgGp6
— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) March 31, 2022
The truth is, America’s tragic decay is not due to foreign enemies but to destructive domestic policies that are decimating our economy and eroding the fabric of American society.
And you can blame Biden and the Democrats for the dystopian nightmare unfolding before our eyes.
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