MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti), Nikita Alentyev – Washington is displaying restless cyber effort against other countries, Bill Blunden a computer security researcher and author told RIA Novosti Friday, commenting on the previously secret documents that suggest FBI using hackers to gather intelligence abroad.
“In light of Edward Snowden's revelations it's clear that the United States is the world's leading aggressor as far as cyber-espionage and mass interception are concerned. The NSA is without equal among nation-states in this regard,” Blunden stated, elaborating on most recent court statements about an FBI informant extracting data from the government servers of a number of countries.
The alarming revelation of the US government’s new foreign policy arsenal may be hinting at a massive and carefully planned cyberwar. As a researcher currently looking into questions of informational security, Blunden stated that labelling these clearly outrageous political manipulations as ‘warfare’ is a hasty conclusion.
“While the United States is neck deep in covert operations which revolve around economic espionage, diplomatic manipulation, and social control, genuine acts of violence, and hence cyberwar, are conspicuously absent,” he explained drawing on the US military’s doctrinal definition of war as socially sanctioned violence to achieve a political purpose.”
The New York Times reported April 23, that certain revealing details, long kept under a lid in closed court sessions, hint that the US government may have used hackers to collect intelligence data abroad, all the while battling hacking groups at home. This is a case of double standards, which have, apparently, gone digital.
“Publicity of this sort seriously undermines US credibility, America's so-called "soft power." It illustrates that US leaders are unwilling to adhere to the values and principles that they outwardly claim to represent. Our leaders certainly don't make much of a fuss when other countries get hacked. When the Chinese complain of "massive and shocking" intrusions, its disclosures are met with silence. Yet cyber-attacks on the United States cause officials to erupt in spasms of righteous indignation,” Blunden said, adding that “in current American foreign policy, hypocrisy is something that the US excels at.”
The revelations continue a series of leaks on massive US espionage globally and have triggered a global public outcry, casting doubt on the lawfulness of the US surveillance.
