{"id":37870,"date":"2018-02-13T19:23:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T19:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/13\/the-united-states-is-under-attack-russia-likely-to-hit-midterms\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:27:16","slug":"the-united-states-is-under-attack-russia-likely-to-hit-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/02\/13\/the-united-states-is-under-attack-russia-likely-to-hit-midterms\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The United States is under attack.\u2019 Russia likely to hit midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said the U.S. is \u201cunder attack\u201d in cyberspace and that Russia would likely step up its election meddling in 2018, spurring lawmakers to vent fears the U.S. is falling behind its adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia, China<\/a>, Iran<\/a> and North Korea<\/a> pose the greatest threats to the United States during the next year, using cyber operations as a low-cost tool of statecraft, Coats warned the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. They will continue to use them, \u201cunless they face clear repercussions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrankly, the United States is under attack,\u201d he said, \u201cunder attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maine Independent Sen. Angus King, who has pressed two administrations to define a cyber strategy, fumed late in the hearing: \u201cWe have no doctrine of deterrence. How are we going to get them to stop doing this if all we do is patch our software and try to defend ourselves?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referencing the recent budget deal\u2019s $1.4 trillion in defense spending, the intel panel\u2019s Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, lamented Russia\u2019s election meddling cost \u201cless than the cost of one new F-35 airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just made a massive additional investment in DoD, we\u2019re roughly 10 [times] our spend versus our near-peer adversaries China and Russia,\u201d Warner said. \u201cWe may be buying the best 20th century military money can buy, when we see our adversaries investing in [artificial intelligence], machine learning, quantum computing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t