American military officials at U.S. Cyber Command have developed a plan to respond in the case of Russian election interference, The Washington Post reports.
“When the Russians put implants into an electric grid, it means they’re making a credible showing that they have the ability to hurt you if things escalate,” said Bobby Chesney, University of Texas at Austin law professor.
“What may be contemplated here is an individualized version of that, not unlike individually targeted economic sanctions,” he added. "It’s sending credible signals to key decision-makers that they are vulnerable if they take certain adversarial actions."
Among the options under consideration is targeting senior Russian officials and the country’s wealthiest citizens, with the exception of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was considered too provocative a choice. If interference is discovered, the U.S. would show that the personal data of the country’s elite is vulnerable and could be subject to attack if the interference doesn’t cease.
CyberCom also has begun targeting Russian trolls working at the Internet Research Agency and hackers connected to Russian military intelligence with emails, pop-ups and texts threatening to publicize their identities. The U.S. later knocked the group’s servers offline and sent messages to confuse their operatives, and specifically their computer system administrators.
Cyber Command and Pentagon officials declined to comment to the Post.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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