On Wednesday, asked by reporters if he had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin President after the latest cyberattack targeting an American firm had been reportedly launched by a Russian hacking group, President Biden simply smiled and said, “I will deliver it to him.”
Biden already had talked about the cyber-attacks emanating from Russia when he met with Putin roughly three weeks ago. His method then, he said, was to list 16 different entities that should be off-limits for an attack, in effect delineating areas which enemies of the United States might regard as a wish-list.
Biden stated:
Another area we spent a great deal of time on was cyber and cybersecurity. I talked about the proposition that certain critical infrastructure should be off limits to attack — period — by cyber or any other means. I gave them a list, if I’m not mistaken — I don’t have it in front of me — 16 specific entities; 16 defined as critical infrastructure under U.S. policy, from the energy sector to our water systems.
Political commentator Stephen Miller mocked Biden: “Whatever you do please do not attack these 16 critical pieces of US infrastructure,” Miller quipped. “Please.”
The New York Times reported on Tuesday:
Russian hackers are accused of breaching a contractor for the Republican National Committee last week, around the same time that Russian cybercriminals launched the single largest global ransomware attack on record, incidents that are testing the red lines set by President Biden during his high-stakes summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month.
Early indications were that the culprit was Russia’s S.V.R. intelligence agency, according to investigators in the case. … On Sunday, a Russian-based cybercriminal organization known as REvil claimed responsibility for a cyberattack over the long holiday weekend that has spread to 800 to 1,500 businesses around the world.
The Times was referring to an attack on Kesaya, based in Miami, Florida, which provides services to more than 40,000 organizations.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated, “Since the meeting between President Biden and President Putin, we have undertaken expert-level talks that are continuing, and we expect to have another meeting next week, focused on ransomware attacks. And I will just reiterate a message that these officials are sending, as the President made clear to President Putin when they met, if the Russian government cannot or will not take action against criminal actors residing in Russia, we will take action or “reserve the right to take action on our own.”
“Now, in this case, the intelligence community has yet attributed the attack,” she continued. “The cybersecurity community agrees that REvil operates out of Russia with affiliates around the world. So we will continue to allow that assessment to continue, but in our conversations and we have been in touch directly, we are continuing to convey that message clearly.”
“In terms of what actions we may or may not take, I’ll allow the national security team to work with that through,” she concluded.
New York GOP Rep. John Katko, the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told The Daily Mail on Monday, “Only weeks after President Biden sat down with Putin and allegedly talked a tough game with Russia, hackers from Russia again attacked thousands of U.S. companies, compromising our nation’s critical infrastructure.”
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Source: Dailywire
