One U.S. intelligence veteran, now a Senate staff member, said the Internet has created huge new opportunities, as well as frightening vulnerabilities, for spy agencies around the world. You can sit anywhere in the world now and run an espionage operation. You find the name of a scientist at a nuclear lab, for example, get his credit ratings, his bank statement, his school records, his mortgage, his insurance, his hospital records, probe for weaknesses. That doesn't mean the Russian government is necessarily responsible for the Moonlight Maze attacks. A senior White House official said that the evidence so clearly points to Russia that it almost suggests a deliberate diversion.
Some people think it's designed to test our reaction.
Boris Labusov, spokesman for Russia's foreign intelligence service, said Russian spies probably would have been clever enough not to allow themselves to be traced. A Web server is a public service. Anybody can connect. Other intelligence experts argued that skilled hackers hired by Russian organized-crime elements may be probing for commercially valuable information. Some of the files apparently stolen include bidding documents and contracts.