Anti-Russian
hysteria
The
Washington Post on Friday reported a genuinely alarming event:
Russian hackers have penetrated the U.S. power system through an
electrical grid in Vermont.
[...]
The first
sentence of the article directly linked this cyberattack to alleged
Russian hacking of the email accounts of the DNC and John Podesta —
what is now routinely referred to as “Russian hacking of our
election” — by referencing the code name revealed on Wednesday by
the Obama administration when it announced sanctions on Russian
officials: “A code associated with the Russian hacking operation
dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected
within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. Officials.”
The Post
article contained grave statements from Vermont officials of the type
politicians love to issue after a terrorist attack to show they are
tough and in control.
[...]
Vermont Sen.
Patrick Leahy issued a statement warning: “This is beyond
hackers having electronic joy rides — this is now about trying to
access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down
in the middle of winter. That is a direct threat to Vermont and we do
not take it lightly.”
The article
went on and on in that vein, with all the standard tactics used by
the U.S. media for such stories: quoting anonymous national security
officials, reviewing past acts of Russian treachery, and drawing the
scariest possible conclusions (“‘The question remains: Are
they in other systems and what was the intent?’ a U.S. official
said”).
The media
reactions, as Alex Pfeiffer documents, were exactly what one would
expect: hysterical, alarmist proclamations of Putin’s menacing
evil:
[...]
The Post’s
story also predictably and very rapidly infected other large media
outlets. Reuters thus told its readers around the world: “A
malware code associated with Russian hackers has reportedly been
detected within the system of a Vermont electric utility.”
Full
report:
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