“Everything is well under control,” is what outgoing Republican President Trump tweeted in response to the still ongoing SolarWinds hack. Sadly, the president is wrong. The situation is far from under control. In fact, things are likely to get much worse in a very short amount of time. . . .

Recently, the federal government announced that one of America’s near-peer competitors was exploiting a critical vulnerability in SolarWinds software to gain unprecedented access to the entities that depended on SolarWinds software — including the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is charged with safeguarding America’s nuclear weapons arsenal. More ominously, every expert has said that the extent of the damage will be unknown for some time, partly because the hack is still underway.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Russia for the hack. Most cyber experts are in agreement with this accusation. The president of Microsoft has echoed this charge and argued that the hack was “reckless” on the part of Russia.

President Trump has inexplicably oscillated from downplaying to outright denying the threat. Every single cybersecurity expert this author has spoken to has stated that this was the most serious hack in American history. . . . no serious cybersecurity analyst thinks this was the work of Chinese hackers masquerading as Russian hackers, as the president has suggested. . . .

While the ongoing hack is best described as an espionage mission conducted by the elite Russian military intelligence unit nicknamed “Cozy Bear,” the fact that the widespread hack is still in-progress means that the hackers are mapping our networks. In essence, this thing is just getting started. Cybersecurity experts are gravely concerned that the Solar Wind hack is merely a prelude to an actual cyberattack. . . .

These are not merely isolated incidents. In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely preparing the future battlefield in Russia’s favor, should hostilities erupt soon between the two nuclear-armed powers. Plus, Mr. Putin knows that President-elect Joe Biden’s team is preparing a “cost imposition strategy” for Russia that goes beyond sanctions and other defensive measures. Given the Mr. Biden team’s harsh rhetoric about Russia, it is likely that Mr. Putin thinks conflict between Russia and America will occur sooner rather than later.

The SolarWinds hack, therefore, is a proof-of-concept for Russia. It is Mr. Putin’s warning to Mr. Biden that Russia’s military can impose much greater horrors  . . . . The United States is at the beginning, not the end, of an uncontrollable cascade of unconventional attacks emanating from its rivals, like Russia, directed against America’s vital-yet-vulnerable technological infrastructure. . . . 

(Excerpt from the Washington Times. Commentary by Brandon J. Weichert. Photo Credit: Unsplash.)