Biden warns US companies of possible Russian cyberattacks

President Joe Biden is asking America’s businesses to make sure their digital doors are securely locked due to “evolving intelligence data” about what Russia is considering launching cyberattacks against critical infrastructure targets at a time when it continues to fight in Ukraine.

The main adviser Biden in terms of cybersecurity, Anne Neubergerhe expressed on Monday at a press conference in the White House his frustration that some critical infrastructure entities have ignored alerts from federal agencies to fix known problems in software that could be exploited by Russian hackers.

“Despite these repeated warnings, we continue to see adversaries compromise systems using known vulnerabilities for which patches exist.” technology, said Neuberger, deputy national security adviser to the president for cyber and emerging technologies. “That makes things a lot easier for the attackers.”

Since long before Russia invaded Ukraine last month, the federal government has been warning American businesses of the threats posed by hackers from the Russian state.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched the campaign “Shields Up” (“Shields up”), aimed at helping companies strengthen their protection mechanisms, and urged companies to back up their data, activate multi-factor authentication and take other measures to improve cyber hygiene.

Neuberger said there is no intelligence to suggest a specific Russian cyberattack against US targets, but he did make it clear that there has been an increase in “preliminary activity”such as browsing websites and searching for vulnerabilities, common among Nation State hackers.

It’s a statement, Biden claimed that Moscow could launch a cyberattack against US targets in retaliation for “the unprecedented economic costs that we have imposed on it” to Russia through sanctions. “It’s part of Russia’s playbook”he declared.

The United States and its allies have applied a series of sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy, with Biden recently announcing that Washington is sending more anti-aircraft and anti-armor weapons as well as drones to help Ukraine.

The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.