Thread by @juliettekayyem

Reports of Russian hackers reaching into US utilities to assess platforms and security is a story that is very much a part of our overall concerns with the 2018 election. Follow along. 1/ #homelandsecurity

But first watch @cnn colleague @jimsciutto strong segment on this.
cnn.com/videos/politic… 2/

What's common in these situations, and true here, is the extent that the infiltration was done through very trusted vendors (3rd parties). The hack is continuing and @DHSgov has issued alerts. 3/
wsj.com/articles/russi…

So there is one theory that is worth positing. Essentially, we are likely doing the same and we are in a mutually assured destruction positioning. See comment here by @nozominetworks, a critical infrastructure cybersecurity firm. 4/

https://twitter.com/nozominetworks/status/1021921280226979851

But what if Russians believed they had first strike capabilities b/c US has not positioned itself/has not shown desire for a response. Think about Trump's tweet yesterday alleging Putin wanted the Dems to win? Does that sound like someone hellbent on stopping first strike? 5/

Now, there has always been the argument that the distributed nature of our elections, our federalism, in some ways protects us. There is no "single point of failure" that could bring the whole system down. 6/

But voting is tied to other systems. As I explained here @newshour, voting is simply a type of critical infrastructure that is tied to other complicated systems, often the electrical grid. 7/

https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/1019761239453466627

A mere focus on election security would not protect from hacking into other systems that voting is dependent on. And imagine a blackout in a major urban or minority area in a purple state. It would be an "election" attack without actually targeting voting. 8/

Lawyers, who look for voting irregularities, should prepare for this, as should media. It may be that there is no way that the Russians would cross that line. It's too obvious. Too in your face. 9/

But I'd feel better if we had spent the last 2 years countering their efforts and publicly calling them out. Instead, Trump has done the opposite. And yesterday, in a tweet, he said he anticipated it. Everyone focused on Trump saying that Putin wanted the Dems to win. 10/

I viewed it differently. Trump was resigned to a 2018 interference. That's not leadership. That's a welcome mat. 11/11