Biden warns business leaders to prepare for Russian cyber attacks
Speaking at the Business Roundtable Quarterly Meeting in Washington, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to use cyber attacks as a form of retaliation against the United States for its actions to counter Russia’s incursion on Ukraine.
Biden said, “The magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential and it’s coming.”
He added that “one of the tools (Putin’s) most likely to use, in my view — in our view — is cyber attacks. They have a very sophisticated cyber capability,” and later argued, “The point is that he has the capability. He hasn’t used it yet, but it’s part of his playbook.”
The President told business leaders the national interest is at stake, suggesting that it’s “a patriotic obligation that you invest as much as you can in making sure — and we will help in any way — that you have built up your technological capacity to deal with cyber attacks.”
While the Biden administration has been warning the nation of the prospect of cyber attacks by Russia for months, most recently as a response to the economic restrictions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the President’s statement suggests “evolving intelligence” has heightened the threat.
The details of exactly what that intelligence is remain unclear, but deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said during Monday’s White House briefing that Russia had been conducting “preparatory activity” for cyber attacks, which she said could include scanning websites and hunting for software vulnerabilities.
Neuberger said the administration is reiterating its warnings “based on evolving threat intelligence that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyber attacks on critical infrastructure in the United States,” but also underscored that “there is no certainty there will be a cyber incident on critical infrastructure.”
The administration last week “hosted classified briefings with companies and sectors we felt would be most effective and provided very practical, focused advice,” Neuberger told CNN’s Phil Mattingly during Monday’s briefing.
Biden said in his statement that the administration would “continue to use every tool to deter, disrupt, and if necessary, respond to cyber attacks against critical infrastructure,” but acknowledged that “the federal government can’t defend against this threat alone.”
“Most of America’s critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector and critical infrastructure owners and operators must accelerate efforts to lock their digital doors. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been actively working with organizations across critical infrastructure to rapidly share information and mitigation guidance to help protect their systems and networks,” the statement said.
The administration is recommending several steps to help private sector partners prevent against cyber attacks, including using multi-factor authentication, consulting…
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