At first I wanted to call this text Wanted, which in Russian means “Wanted”. Remember, such posters often appear in American westerns, action films and thrillers with the designation of a tidy sum intended for the head of another villain? Something similar existed with us. In Soviet times, rare onlookers always stopped at the stands “The Police Wanted Them” to admire the criminal faces. Money, however, was not promised for their capture. In our time, the police have changed to the police. There are even fewer curious people.
In fairness, it must be said that methods for identifying socially dangerous elements and methods for neutralizing them are developing along with progress. Now this is happening with the help of all kinds of media and Internet resources. And the criminal has become more sophisticated and multifaceted. Especially on a global scale. Especially in the field of cybersecurity. Therefore, a simple poster Wanted, and even with the postscript Dead or Alive (alive or dead), is not enough.
Meanwhile, the US State Department's Rewards for Justice program, established back in 1984, does not tire of promising millions in awards for information that prevents or favorably authorizes acts of international terrorism against Americans, as well as attempts to infringe on their property around the world. In the field of view of the program were hacker criminal groups, Osama bin Laden and his accomplices, terrorists who attacked the US diplomatic mission in Libyan Benghazi in 2012, and even an entire state - North Korea, which violated sanctions, trade bans and behaved indecently in cyberspace. In total, during the operation of such a reward system, about 100 people received a total of about $ 150 million.
And now the State Department has promised a $ 10 million award "for information that could help identify and locate cybercriminals working on orders from a foreign government and attacking key US infrastructure facilities." The key phrase here is "by order of a foreign government." That is, it is necessary to identify not just criminals, but a certain criminal government that has allowed itself to raise a hacker's hand against the world stronghold of democracy and law and order.
And here the most interesting begins, although, in general, and predictable. In all cyber operations of this kind, the main "accomplices of the villains" - the Russian authorities, are directly or indirectly accused. For example, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, summing up the results of Joe Biden's meeting with key leaders of the State Department, as well as the US Department of Justice and Homeland Security, openly stated: “If the Russian authorities do not take action against the criminals on their territory , we will do it ourselves. " There is no doubt about Russia's involvement in cyberattacks and the daily newspaper The New York Times, according to which cyber ransomware hacking into various IT resources of American structures are "a Russian-speaking gang that has become the face of global cybercrime."
It is curious that the hacker groups in question, judging by their statements, consider themselves almost Robin Hoods or even cyber forest orderlies, forcing business owners to improve their cyber defense. For example, the DarkSide company, which does not hide its involvement in many hacks, released a statement, which says: “We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics, there is no need to associate us with a certain government and look for our motives. Our goal is to make money, not create problems for society. "
Of course, the Kremlin also categorically rejects all suspicions. Once again, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, is forced to declare: "Of course, whatever it is (and we do not know what it was specifically), it in no way has anything to do with official Moscow." Despite this, American politicians demand decisive action from their president, believing that he gives weakness in dialogue with his Russian counterpart. For example, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal calls for revenge: “Another ransomware attack paralyzed American business. If, as previously reported, it was organized by Russian cybercriminals, then this could not have been done without the permission of Vladimir Putin. The time for words and warnings has passed: he understands only clear, proportional consequences. "
And now the US State Department announces a reward for the heads of malicious burglars.
Anyone who brings information in their teeth about the real source of threats can get rich by ten lemons.
What is the true cost and purpose of such a step?
What can the launch of the mechanism of purposeful suspicion, denunciation and snitching lead to?
After all, even though this activity is not only troublesome, but also dangerous, who does not want to try to become a millionaire overnight?
I am afraid that the least we should expect to be caught red-handed by specific culprits and instant enrichment at the expense of anyone.
First, because no personification on this battlefield is possible in principle. You can’t track down or split the radio operator Kat by any means. All actions are carried out throughout the entire world Internet network using special ciphers and codes, and, unlike antediluvian data transmission, there is no such device that can be tracked in the forest or in a safe house and neutralize it. And secondly, the Americans themselves in this sense, roughly speaking, have a snout in the fluff. Their super-tech data processing centers (or data centers), located both in the United States and in some, let's say, very remote countries, are themselves capable of carrying out any hacker attacks and other very sophisticated cyber operations, as well as the collection of personal data and the dissemination of fake information. For what? For total control, for media hype,for butting with a geopolitical enemy. And suddenly, God forbid, there is some regular Snowden and it suddenly turns out that all this mess in the web space is the work of the special services of the United States itself. Will the snake bite itself by the tail in such a situation? This is hardly possible!
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.