Companies must be ready as Russia explores options for cyberattacks, Joe Biden warns

On Monday, President Joe Biden urged businesses in the U.S to take more safety precautions against cyberattacks, based on developing intelligence that hints at likely attacks from Russia.

The directive came about a month after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, killing over 900 people, including 39 children.

In an address to the Business Roundtable CEO quarterly meeting in Washington, Biden said “the magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential, and it’s coming. The federal government is doing its part to get ready.”

The President said in a statement, “I have previously warned about the potential that Russia could conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States, including as a response to the unprecedented."

“It's part of Russia’s playbook. Today, my Administration is reiterating those warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks” He added.

During his address, he acknowledged that much of the Nation’s critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, encouraging them to protect their critical services, seeing that Americans rely on them.

He further urged them to take various security measures with a sense of urgency which includes, mandating the use of multi-factor authentication on systems which makes it more difficult for attackers to get through, encrypting data to prevent it from being used when stolen.

Deploy security tools on the computer and devices which will continue to look for threats and mitigate them. Educate employees on common tactics which attackers may likely use either through emails or websites.

Run exercise and set out emergency plans so they are in a position to respond quickly to minimize the impact of any attack.

Biden said, “We need everyone to do their part to meet one of the defining threats of our time - your vigilance and urgency today can prevent or mitigate attacks tomorrow.”

Anne Neuberger, who is the U.S. deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology revealed to reporters at a press conference that it was uncertain if vital infrastructures will be attacked.

Neuberger acknowledged that some planned activities were already going on, but didn’t go further to reveal the industries that would likely get hit.

HubSpot, which is a software company based in the U.S revealed that it got hit on Friday, and the attack was likely targeted towards cryptocurrency users. The source of the attacker was unknown by HubSpot.

It was revealed by Microsoft that last month information concerning cyber threats was sent to the government. Attacks on civilian and military targets in Ukraine had been observed by the corporation, but they had not been ascribed to Russia or any other entity.

At a press conference, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “We’ve made it very clear to the Russians that there will be a high price to pay if they were to use their capabilities to target critical infrastructure, to target sectors of strategic importance.”