US hackers busily engaged in cyber espionage: American foreign policy analyst

An American foreign policy analyst says cyber espionage, cyber hacking is a very lively field of modern governments, and that US hackers are also busily engaged in such activities.

James George Jatras, a former US diplomat and adviser to the Senate Republican leadership, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on latest US hacking accusations, this time against Russia.

US military officials claimed on Thursday that suspected Russian hackers accessed to an email system used by Pentagon employees of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which advises the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the president of the US on military matters.

“As with the claims of Chinese hacking of US government servers, these recent claims regarding Russia, are hard to understand the significance of, precisely in the absence of a specific proof, about the origin, whether it was from the official sources, or maybe unofficial hackers,” Jatras said.

“As we know, globally cyber espionage, cyber hacking is a very lively field of moves and countermoves by really any number of governments,” he added.

“I am not saying that the Russians did not hack this server. It’s quite possible they did, and if they did so successfully, that itself should be an area of great concern for the US government and [it should] find ways to counter that,” he stated.

“And I am sure we have hackers who are busily engaging in similar activities in the other direction,” the analyst noted.

“And I think this is simply the part of modern technological life. And, frankly, in terms of warfare probably a lot less lethal than some of other things that have been engaged in the past,” he said, downplaying the issue.

In April, the New York Times reported that Russian hackers penetrated sensitive parts of the White House computer system last year and stole some of President Barack Obama's emails.

Quoting US officials, the Times reported that the hackers read an undisclosed number of Obama's emails, forcing officials to meet nearly daily for weeks afterward.

In June, US officials claimed that hackers from China had broken into the computer system of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in December 2014, possibly compromising the personal data of millions of current and former federal employees.

Washington has for years accused the Chinese government and military of conducting computer-based attacks against the US, including efforts to steal information from federal agencies.

It claims that the Chinese military has made cyber warfare capabilities a priority over a decade ago and often blames people linked to it for hacking into US companies’ computers to steal secrets.

Beijing says Washington’s cyber attack accusations are hypocritical, since intelligence leaks have revealed that the US itself is most active perpetrator of cyber espionage against foreign countries, especially against China.

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