The United States is set to respond to Russian-attributed cyberattacks on American agencies soon, and Washington’s response will include more than sanctions. Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security, announced this in an interview with CBS.
He said that intelligence is now figuring out the extent of the damage and identifying those involved in the attacks. It will take weeks to prepare a response, Sullivan said.
“The response will include a set of tools – visible and invisible. These will not be just sanctions,” he warned.
Sullivan noted that responding to such incidents requires a “comprehensive toolbox.” He added that the US administration is working on this.
Cyberattack on US agencies
In December, it became known about a large-scale cyberattack on the clients of the computer security firm SolarWinds. Numerous US government agencies were named among the victims. It was reported that this could be one of the largest in scale and damage cyber attacks on the American public sector.
A number of American media outlets accused Russian cybercriminals of hacking, but did not provide any evidence in favor of this version. According to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, one can say “quite clearly” about Russia’s participation in the hacker attack. In turn, Donald Trump suggested that China was behind the incident.
As the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov emphasized, Moscow has nothing to do with it. He recalled that Russia has repeatedly offered Washington to resume dialogue on cybersecurity, but received a “categorical refusal.”
Last week, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint statement by the FBI and a number of other US structures, according to which Russia is likely behind the cyber hack. As suggested in Washington, the purpose of the attack was to obtain intelligence.
According to Reuters, after taking office as President of the United States, Joe Biden may impose new sanctions against Russia – due to cyber attacks attributed to Moscow.
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