White House press secretary Jen Psaki made a pretty striking admission on Friday.
Psaki was asked by Real Clear Politics‘s Philip Wegmann whether the president had been briefed on any intelligence suggesting that the DarkSide hacking group, which claimed responsibility for the recent Colonial Pipeline hack, causing significant disruption to East Coast gas supplies, operates under the indirect supervision of the Russian intelligence services.
Wegmann emphasized the point, “Is there any relationship that we have seen?”
Psaki responded, “I think the president was clear last week in what the intelligence assessment is about the Russian government’s involvement or knowledge of the hacking. At the same time, they are a criminal entity that is on Russian soil, and therefore they have a responsibility.”
This is an absurd parsing of words. But the Biden White House’s casuistry aside, his choice will only embolden Russia to stage further attacks.
The standing intelligence assessment shows that higher capability hacking groups such as DarkSide operate under the indirect supervision of the Russian security establishment. True, DarkSide is not explicitly part of the Russian FSB. But in return for its relative freedom of action, DarkSide agrees to limit its targets to those approved by the Russian security establishment. DarkSide officers are also very likely to have been previously used by the Kremlin for deniable cyber operations against the West (ask Sergei Korolyov).
True, the Colonial Pipeline hack was very likely not authorized by the Kremlin. That almost certainly explains why the group then sought to distance themselves from any nation-state authority and even apologized for the disruption. (I’d bet good money that they were probably told by a Russian official to do so — and that they were told in a way that would make it likely the U.S. intercepted the relevant conversation.)
Still, the nature of this mutually beneficial relationship is not in doubt. Psaki’s admission that the group operates on Russian soil proves as much. And the issue runs deeper than that. DarkSide also likely provides some of its ransom money to Russian security officials under the cronyism networks that define the Russian security establishment. Again, Biden will have been briefed on all the relevant intelligence.
All of this begs the question: Why hasn’t Biden, at a minimum, demanded the immediate extradition of the group’s officers? He would be justified in doing much more, ordering commensurate cyber retaliation against Russia’s energy network.
The National Security Agency has the means to trace DarkSide’s servers through any deception measures they can create. It has also likely identified at least some of the group’s members. Extradition demands at least should be a no-brainer. But Biden just keeps showing he is weak on Russia. We deserve more than we are getting here.
