Former chief of CIA’s worldwide operations, founding partner and President of The Arkin Group, and author of the new book Spymaster’s Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression, Jack Devine discussed the gravity of the massive cyber hack by Russia, today on Bloomberg Radio, hosted by Paul Sweeney and Vonnie Quinn. Jack talked about the scale of the cyberattack on U.S. government agencies. He said, “Collecting intelligence around the world is a common event, but the magnitude of going into every aspect of our defense system, is really over the top, an extremely aggressive thing … I think we’re only looking at the tip of the iceberg here.” According to Jack, Russian hackers are deeply embedded in DoD and our defense contracting industry. Regarding the history of Russian aggression against the United States, Jack said there have been continuous intelligence activities over the last 25 years. He noted that the Russians are still using the Cold War strategy to put the United States off balance. Jack commented that Russian interference in the 2016 election is an example whereby Russia is now going beyond just the collection of intelligence, and now with the information they have from the 2020 cyber hack, they will be in a position to take further action against us. Jack believes we are looking at the same dynamics as we were in the Cold War with nuclear weapons, and while cyber weapons are not kinetic, they are nonetheless damaging. “We need new ground rules,” according to Jack who believes the United States and Russia should negotiate the rules of the game when it comes to cyber warfare. Jack said, “If someone thought Russia hasn’t been in an adversarial role, this should be a wake-up call.”

“Hackers May Be Deeply Embedded In DoD,” Bloomberg Radio, December 21, 2020

Spymaster’s Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression, by Jack Devine