When it comes to the strange sonic attacks which have afflicted American diplomatic personnel across the globe, most national security officials who have been briefed on the available intelligence are highly confident that Russian state actors are responsible.

Separate stories in the New York Times and GQ Magazine, this week, brought new weight to the idea of Russian culpability. GQ’s noting of big data analysis relating to cellphone records is especially interesting in its pointing toward Russian FSB officers being responsible for the attacks. The Russians use the FSB for their most sensitive deniable operations abroad, partly in that the FSB’s standard domestic remit makes it harder for foreign intelligence services to recruit FSB officers as spies.