America should respond to russia and what else the biden team should be ready to focus on. And the covid crisis in america is worsening by the day. 2021 will bring some relief, but how much . Will the world return to normal next year . Global health expe devi joins m the most critical networks, widely attributed to russia linked hackers, its clear it is massive, unprecedented and crippling. Tom bossart, who served at Homeland Security skriezer to President Trump writes, it will take years to know for certain which networks the russians control and which ones they just occupy. We do know that they successfully penetrated the department of Homeland Securitys own systems as well as the state department, commerce, and others. Stanfords alex stimos says this is one of the most important hacking campaigns in history. Vladimir putins russia has significantly expanded its hybrid warfare using new methods to spread chaos among its adversaries. The United States will have to fortify its Digital Infrastructure and respond more robustly to the kremlins mounting cyberattacks. What about the more insidious russian efforts addat disinform helped reshape the information environment worldwide. In 2016, two scholars at the Rand Corporation wrote a paper describing russias five hose of fal falsehood propaganda model. Different from doled war era propaganda. Current russian approaches work with prevailing technologies and social media platforms. There are at least two key features. High numbers of channels and messages and a shameless willingness to disseminate partial truths or outright fictions. There is no effort at consistency or credibility. The report quotes one analyst, new russian propaganda entertains, confuses, and overwhelms the audience. Now, russias methods, strangely closely resemble Donald Trumps own propaganda strategy. Trump issues a blizzard of messages using every medium he can find. He is usually untruthful, but always entertaining. He never worries about consistency, asking only you remember his most recent claims. So when campaigning in 2016, he argued that the Unemployment Rate was a hoax, that the Federal Reserve was keeping rates dangerously low and the stock market at the time was a bubble about to burst. Once he entered the white house, he soon said the exact opposite about all three. If you bombard people in the present, few have time to dwell on the past. Waitingly or unwittingly, trump uses the russian model which rests on the principle that people are more likely to be convinced when they hear the message many times from a variety of sources no matter how biased the sources are. He adds an intuitive understanding of how social media works. If you make an outrageous claim, it will attract attention and eyeballs and over time people may begin to believe it. A boring truth dies on twitter while a sensational lie goes viral and, most disturbingly, over time the lie becomes a halftruth. Trump has set a new standard because he simply does not view the truth as a constraint. For example, a principle conservative would explain republicans dont have a replacement for health care because they dont believe the government should be required to provide health care as a right. Trump asserts he has a plan, one better than obamacare. He said he will veto the defense appropriate bill because it removes confederate names from bases, a rule that protects social media companies. He decided it would be simple willer to claim that, quote, the biggest winner of our new defense bill is china, unquote. Now, there is no conceivable sense this is factual since the bill creates a formal deterrence offense against chinese expansionism for the first time. Trump understands that a sensational lie is far more effective than a complicated truth. The pandemic may have accelerated these trends. Socially isolated, americans now seem more susceptible to theories that confirm their partisan beliefs. The most startling fact about 2020 is not that donald trump tried to overturn the results of the election. Many of us predicted he would try that. What is stunning is that according to the polls 60 million americans believe his assertions and the series of lies that sustain them. The problem is this not just that russia has hacked into americas Computer Systems. It seems to have hacked into our minds. Go to cnn. Com fareed for a link to my Washington Post column this week, and lets get started. Lets dig into this devastating hack with david sanger. New york times. He is the author of the perfect weapon weapon, war, sabotage and fear in the cyber age. Perfectly timed. Hbo released a document also called the perfect weapon based on the book. David, people are going to want to know where yy you have judges to be such a massive intelligence failure. Well, fareed, i think the first and most important thing to know is that this attack was with such stealth that it did not actually set off any of those great sensors that the United States, the National Security agency, cyber command, the department of Homeland Security have created over the past five or ten years, and particularly the ones created after the 2016 hacks surrounding the president ial election. And the reason, fareed, that the Russian Intelligence Agency that pulled this off, a group that is known as the svr, was able to be is stealthy was that they very wisely got into some software that companies, government agencies, all use to manage their computer networks. And they got into the updates, similar to the kind of update that you would use if you plugged in your phone overnight and you waited for apple or another manufacturer to update your phone. And, of course, you dont look at the code that came in overnight, and neither did the companies that were taking the new improved version of the software. And that Software Enabled the hackers in this case, the suspected Russian Group, to be able to bore in and basically get access to everything from email to databases and all that. The question is, how much of that access did they make use of, and why didnt we see this supply chain hack . A hack so smart that it got into the supplier rather than breaking directly into the computer system. Explain what the damage could be potentially. They are in the department of Homeland Security computers, for example. That means they potentially have access to what . Its a great question. And the answer is right now no one knows. The potential is huge because the software was used so broadly. But we believe that the suspected hackers, again the group that everybody seems to be believe is the russian intelligence group, probably only went into dozens or hundreds of these systems out of a universe of more than 18,000. And that could have been because they wanted to be careful not to get caught. If they are in the email system, the question is, are they only in the unclassified email system, which would be bad. Theyd get sensitive material, but wouldnt be anywhere near as bad of being inside classified networks. If they are in databases, can they simply download the material or can they alter data . Data alterations always has been a big fear. If you got into the pentagon system and you read medical records, its bad enough. If you were able to change everyones good type, that would be really bad. If you got into targeting systems. If you got into satellite sensors, that could be really bad. We just dont know right now. And thats whats most worrisome in some ways because joe biden will be coming in and inheriting a government that clearly is permeated with some amount of russian code and he is not going to know exactly what he can trust. Attribution is often very difficult with cyberattacks. What is the why are we so sure, why are the experts so sure that this is in all likelihood russia add the particular Russian Group svr . Its a great question. Part of this, at least that we know about, has to do with the tactics, the patience, the time and resources that were required, which, as one cybersecurity expert outside of the government who looks at staterun acts, said excludes 97 of the hackers who are out there. So thats number one. Number two is they used some techniques that we have seen russians use before and this group used before. But i have to say i have checked with a broad variety of people inside and outside of the government, and they are all honing down on the same group. It could turn out a few months from now that it was a different Russian Group. I guess it could turn out that it was the chinese instead of the russians, but it seems unlikely based on everything we know right now. David, let me ask you about a contrast, which is that a lot of the administration, the Homeland Security agency, others, experts all seem very, very perturbed about this. The one person who does not seem that perturbed is the president of the United States. Yeah. Its completely striking, fareed. He has been almost awol on the subject. Think about it. His National Security advisor was in europe on his last trip in office and turned around to go manage this crisis and gather the nurt security council. The National Security agency, the spy agency, has been turning out warnings to the government and private industry. The department of Homeland Security turned out one of the most sharply worded bureaucratic warnings i have ever seen, one that says that the government Computer Systems are in grave danger, and yet we have heard so little from the president. We have heard from president elect biden, and i thought that his statement was particularly notable because he said, you know, having better defenses is not enough here, that we need to raise the cost. We need to impose costs and we need to make sure that a price is paid for this. You know, thats easier said than done. The russians have been breaking into american Computer Systems for a quarter century. They did it in the 1990s. Famously, they went into the state department, the joint chiefs of staff, and the white house unclassified email systems during the Obama Administration while joe biden was there and the Obama Administration underreacted at that time. They didnt even name the russians publicly. Now president elect biden is saying he will act, but i think he is going to find that when you get into that kind of adversarial situation with a nuclear power, you get very careful about how you allow escalation to occur. So what should the Trump Administration do, and more importantly, what should the Biden Administration do to protect the country against such hacks . I will ask former National Security advisor tom donilon when we cam bock. Om. E. B. A. C. My kids, they know im a scientist. But its hard to explain to them what i do every day. Right now, im working on purification technologies that help advance vaccine and Therapy Research for covid19. One day, theyll realize i wasnt just trying to help them go out and play again. I was trying to make it safer for the whole world to get back outside too. Finding the right words can be tough. N it comes to autism, finding understanding doesnt have to be. Together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. Go to autismspeaks. Org but today theres a combination of two immunotherapies you can take first. One that could mean. A chance to live longer. Opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with nonsmall cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pdl1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. Its the first and only approved chemofree combination of two immunotherapies that works together in different ways to harness the power of the immune system. Opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more days. More nights. More beautiful weekends. More ugly sweaters. More big hugs. More small outings. Opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. This may happen during or after treatment has ended and can become serious and lead to death. Some of these problems may happen more often when opdivo is used with yervoy. See your doctor right away if you have a new or worse cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; diarrhea; severe stomach pain; nausea or vomiting; dizziness; fainting; extreme tiredness; weight changes; constipation; excessive thirst; changes in urine or eyesight; rash; itching; confusion; memory problems; muscle pain or weakness; joint pain; flushing; fever; tell your doctor about all your medical conditions including immune system problems, or if youve had an organ transplant or lung, breathing, or liver problems. Heres to a chance for more together time. A chance to live longer. Ask your doctor about opdivo plus yervoy. Thank you to all involved in our clinical trials. When the new National Security team starts work after the stroke of noon on january 20th, they will have a whole host of crises to deal with. The suspected russian hack, covid19, heightened tensions with china, climate change, and the Bigger Picture of reestablishing americas role on the world stage after four years of america first. How to go about all of that . I wanted to talk to somebody who had occupied the National Security advisor seat that Jake Sullivan is slated to inherit that day. Tom donilon served that role for president obama from 2010 to 2013. Welcome, tomorrow donlon. Thank you, fareed. Hope you are doing well. Tom, react first to this russian hack. What are your thoughts about it . I have a couple of thoughts and a couple of ways i think we should be thinking about this. First of all, it is most likely the most severe attack, cyberattack on the United States that we have seen. Its almost certainly an attack by a nation state and i think if the reports are correct most certainly from russia. The headline here, of course, is that the United States was not able to defend itself and defend its networks against an attack by an adversary. The United States government now will have, as a massive task, of doing a damage assessment, of trying to clean up the attack, clean up the networks, discover exactly will the malware is and what its doing, get it off the systems, and also to engage and deter future attacks. A couple of other thoughts come to mind, and thats this. I think its an analytical point, not meant to be a partisan point, but i dont think that cybersecurity has been at the top of the list for the Trump Administration to date. The director of National Intelligence adds you know, fareed, for a long time now, six or seven years, has indicated that cyberattacks were among the top risk to the United States and it has not been reflected i think in the priorities of the administration. Indeed, you recall in 2018 the administration actually disassembled, took down the cybersecurity coordinators role inside the nsc, comparable around Global Health, but took down the cyber coordinators role in tand got rid of, dismis two of the most senior folks on the team. Of course, i also note that at around the same time that this attack was happening that the government actually dismissed President Trump dismissed the senior cybersecurity official in the government, chris krebs. Going foorld i think the priority needs to be raised. Obviously, very intense effort. This will take months and maybe years to actually get it the bottom of this and to repair the networks. It will cost billions of dollars. I expect the Biden Administration will put in place a coordination structure inside the white house and i think we a should move to public attribution to respect to this attack when we have the basis to do that and i expect it will be russia. That has been something, the last thing ill say, that has been something that this administration has been reluctant to do, which is to engage, confront, criticize Vladimir Putin and the russians when they have done things which are decidedly against u. S. Interests. Talk about that last piece more. What would you do with russia . Look, it is a nuclear power. We have interests. We want to make sure that we have some kind of a relationship. What is the strategy that we should have towards russia . I think a couple of things, fareed. Number one, it is important to realize that russia is actively hostile to the United States and has been so for quite a while here. There is no deterrence with respect to Vladimir Putin that he has felt. And i think it arises from a couple of things here that need to be corrected in the next administration. In the Biden Administration. One is there has been this reluctance one of the most inexplicable things i think in the Trump Administration, reluctance by President Trump to confront it, criticize, engage Vladimir Putin with respect to steps that they have taken against u. S. Interests. He has been at odds with his own gover