Daily US Times: President-elect Joe Biden’s chief of staff said on Sunday that once Mr Biden takes office, he will punish Russia for its suspected cyberespionage operation against the US with financial sanctions and measures to hobble Russia’s ability to launch future hacks, as a GOP senator criticized President Trump for having a “blind spot” when it comes to Moscow.
Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said: “Those who are responsible are going to face consequences for it.”
“It’s not just sanctions. It’s also steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this sort of attack or, worse still, engage in even more dangerous attacks.”
The CEO of cybersecurity firm FireEye, Kevin Mandia, said it was clear the foreign intrusions were not “one and done” and suggested there was little time to spare before the next one. FireEye acknowledged that it had been targeted by the massive spying attempt and hacks
“These attacks will continue to escalate, and get worse if we do nothing,” Mr Kevin said.
Top US officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Cybersecurity experts have been clear over the past week that they believe Russia was behind it that infiltrated over 40 federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury, Energy and Commerce.
Bu, over the weekend, President Trump cast doubt on that assessment, suggesting without evidence that China may be behind the cyber attack and minimizing the impact.
You may read: Pompeo says Russia ‘pretty clearly’ behind cyberattack on US