An American hacker who goes by the name of “Jester” has struck back against the Russian federation in retaliation for Russian cyber-attacks against American companies and the recent cyber-attack against the DNC. The attack against Russia really wasn’t that impressive; just a message placed on an archived page of the foreign affairs website, but the note left behind is intriguing and maybe a bit comical.
The website MID.ru is the official website of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation which is similar to the U.S. State Department.
This message was posted to an archived page on the website. "Comrades! We interrupt regular scheduled Russian Foreign Affairs Website programming to bring you the following important message," he wrote. "Knock it off. You may be able to push around nations around you, but this is America. Nobody is impressed."
In addition to the message, visitors with audio got to listen to the American civil alert message. You know the one that makes you think WWIII just started until they say “THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM…”
Jester released the following tweet with a link to the archived webpage so followers could view his message on the Russian Foreign Affairs Website.
Russia has been blamed for a string of recent attacks against the United States government. In early October, weeks before the U.S. presidential election, the Obama administration said it was "confident" that Russia was responsible for the recent hackings of emails about upcoming US elections in an attempt to interfere with the outcome.
"We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.
"The recent disclosures of alleged hacked emails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts," the statement added. "These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow -- the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there."
To make matters worse, Russia used Julian Assange like a pawn, using stolen emails and publishing them to WikiLeaks to damage the prospects of Hillary Clinton winning the presidency. As we now know, Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidential election, which may have come in part from the warm words spoken by Putin about Trump and the constant release of emails intended to damage the credibility of Hillary Clinton.
Now that the United States election is over, the possibility exists of a warm-up in the US/Russia relationship; however, I and others, like Jester, will remain skeptical of Putin’s intentions. Will a true thaw occur, or will Putin order continued hacking against the United States and attempt to marginalize and manipulate Donald Trump? These are uncertain times, and like most Americans, I'm optimistic but seriously suspicious of the potential new world order.
