Cyber attacks are a real threat to our country. This report presents the opposed views of USA and Russia on cyber security and gives insight into the activities of the Russian civilian and military intelligence Services (RIS) conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. The Grizzly Steppe Report provides details regarding the tools and hacking techniques used by the Russian hackers in order to interfere the 2016 U.S. elections. This activity by RIS is just part of an ongoing campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and its citizens. These cyber operations have included spearphishing campaigns targeting government organizations, critical infrastructure entities, think tanks, universities, political organizations, and corporations leading to the theft of information. In foreign countries, RIS actors conducted damaging and/or disruptive cyber-attacks, including attacks on critical infrastructure networks. In some cases, RIS actors masqueraded as third parties, hiding behind false online personas designed to cause the victim to misattribute the source of the attack. This report provides technical indicators related to many of these operations, recommended mitigations, suggested actions to take in response to the indicators provided, and information on how to report such incidents to the U.S. Government.
The edition also provides crucial information on the legality of hostile cyber activity at state level. While the United States and its allies are in general agreement on the legal status of conflict in cyberspace, China, Russia, and a number of like-minded nations have an entirely different concept of the applicability of international law to cyberspace.