After months of Russian-linked cyberattacks against American businesses, President Biden was asked by reporters if he had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the attacks, to which he replied, “I will deliver it to him.”
The last time Biden spoke with Putin about Russian-linked cyberattacks was last month when he gave Putin a list of 16 targets – I mean “off-limits entities” – which Biden said were “critical infrastructure” that should not be attacked.
“Another area we spent a great deal of time on was cyber and cybersecurity,” Biden said of the meeting. “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.”
Since Biden’s meeting with Putin three weeks ago, there has been an apparent increase in cyberattacks from Russian hackers. 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.”
The New York Times added, “Early indications were that the culprit was Russia’s S.V.R. intelligence agency, according to investigators in the case. The S.V.R. is the group that initially hacked the Democratic National Committee six years ago and more recently conducted the SolarWinds attack that penetrated more than a half-dozen government agencies and many of the largest U.S. corporations.”
“The R.N.C. attack was the second of apparent Russian origin to become public in the last few days, and it was unclear late Tuesday whether the two were related,” the Times continued. “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. It was one of the largest attacks in history in which hackers shut down systems until a ransom is paid, security researchers said.”
During a press conference this week, Biden gave up and walked off stage in the middle of attempting to answer a question about if the Russian cyberattacks were enough to provoke U.S. retaliation.
“Mr. President on the latest ransomware attack, can you tell us if you believe that rises to the level of U.S. retaliation?” the reporter asked Biden.
“I can tell you a couple of things. I received an update from my national security team this morning,” Biden responded. “It appears to have caused minimal damage to U.S. businesses, but we’re still gathering information to the full extent of the attack. And I’m gonna have more to say about this. In the next several days, we’re getting more detailed information. That’s what I can tell you now, and I feel good about our ability to… uh…”
Appearing defeated, Biden then stopped midsentence and walked off stage.
WATCH: Joe Biden AGAIN reads directly off his notes to answer question on the latest Russian cyberattack. pic.twitter.com/BLgtzfmD01
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2021
