New Russian Boldness Revives a Cold War Tradition: Testing the Other Side

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/world/europe/new-russian-boldness-revives-a-cold-war-tradition-testing-the-other-side-.html

By DAVID E. SANGER and NICOLE PERLROTH
The New York Times
OCT. 30, 2014

WASHINGTON -- When the White House discovered in recent weeks that its 
unclassified computer systems had been breached, intelligence officials 
examined the digital evidence and focused on a prime suspect: Russia, 
which they believe is using its highly sophisticated cyber capabilities to 
test American defenses. But its tracks were well covered, and officials 
say they may never know for sure.

They have no doubt, however, about what happened this week on the edges of 
NATO territory in Europe. More than two dozen Russian aircraft, including 
four Tu-95 strategic bombers, flew through the Baltic and Black Seas, 
along the coast of Norway and all the way to Portugal, staying over 
international waters but prompting NATO forces to send up intercepting 
aircraft.

Taken together, they represent the old and the updated techniques of Cold 
War signal-sending. In the Soviet era, both sides probed each other’s 
defenses, hoping to learn something from the reaction those tests of will 
created. In 2014, cyber is the new weapon, one that can be used with less 
restraint, and because its creators believe they cannot be traced and can 
create a bit of havoc without prompting a response.

In this case, the response was that the White House shut down use of some 
of its networks for lengthy periods — more an inconvenience than anything 
else, but a sign of the fragility of the system to sophisticated attacks.

[...]

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