Biden Issues Statement Warning That Russia Is Plotting New Cyberattacks on U.S.

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President Joe Biden issued a stark warning on Monday that “evolving intelligence” pointed to renewed efforts by Russia to conduct cyberattacks against the U.S., including specifically urging the private sector to “harden your cyber defenses immediately.”

The president’s warning comes amid a global effort to impose crippling sanctions on Russia for their invasion of Ukraine.

Now is a “critical moment to accelerate our work to improve domestic cybersecurity,” said Biden in a statement, noting his previous warnings about the possibility Russia “could conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States, including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs we’ve imposed on Russia alongside our allies and partners.”

In a statement Monday, President Joe Biden warns of “evolving intelligence,” that points to “the potential Russia could conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States,” calling on the private sector “to harden your cyber defenses immediately.” pic.twitter.com/hWEDfwkV73

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Biden vowed that his administration would “continue to use every tool to deter, disrupt, and if necessary, respond to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure.”

“But the Federal Government can’t defend against this threat alone,” he continued, because most of America’s critical infrastructure was owned and operated by the private sector. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has issued information and mitigation guidance for companies to implement to “lock their digital doors.”

“If you have not already done so, I urge our private sector partners to harden your cyber defenses immediately,” Biden’s statement concluded, “by implementing the best practices we have developed together over the last year. You have the power, the capacity, and the responsibility to strengthen the cybersecurity and resilience of the critical services and technologies on which Americans rely. 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.”

A Fact Sheet posted on the White House website provided additional strategies for protecting against cyberattacks, including mandating multi-factor authentication, backing up data and saving backup files offline and out of reach of cyberattackers, and encrypting data.