“Unfortunately, a lot of Iranians are falsely accused of crimes, including espionage,” she said. “It made me wonder, do they knowingly falsely accuse people to tighten their grip on society and to silence people?
To sum up, when the Kremlin opposes dissidents (inside the Russian Federation or members of the Commonwealth of Independent States), we see denial of service, SQL injections, and other types of cyber attacks including cyber espionage being conducted against those groups.
Drake pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of exceeding his authorized use of an agency computer after authorities dropped the most serious charges -- including some under the Espionage Act -- against him.
Nonetheless, he does acknowledge that cyber threats are real and that various cyber tools and techniques are becoming increasingly important in international conflict, including those used for sabotage, espionage, and subversion.