Biden to unleash cyber attacks

The Biden administration is preparing a series of aggressive cyber attacks on Russia in a shift in tactics designed as a warning shot to rival powers.

The attack, expected in the next fortnight, is in retaliation for the SolarWinds hack, the largescale infiltration of American government agencies and corporations discovered late last year that was traced back to the Kremlin.

It comes after President Joe Biden this week engaged in a war of words with Vladimir Putin, calling the Russian president a ‘‘killer’’, while the White House attacked China for rights abuses in a tense opening of face-to-face talks.

The US will not target civilian structures or networks, but the hack is instead designed as a direct challenge to Putin and his cyber army, The Sunday Telegraph understands.

The White House confirmed it will take ‘‘a mix of actions’’ – both ‘‘seen and unseen’’ – although it did not provide specifics on when and how it would do so.

Any such move would mark a different tact taken by previous administrations, which have largely acted defensively against Moscow’s cyber warfare. Donald Trump took a much more cautious approach on Russia, being careful never to directly criticise or challenge the regime.

‘‘I believe that a set of measures that are understood by the Russians, but may not be visible to the broader world, are likely to be the most effective measures in terms of clarifying what the United States believes are in bounds and out of bounds, and what we are prepared to do in response,’’ Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, told The New York Times this week. Sullivan stressed that traditional sanctions alone do not sufficiently affect powers such as Russia, or China.

A senior Russian government source said it was anticipating the cyber attacks would come in the form of a ‘‘large-scale information campaign’’ aimed at discrediting its coronavirus vaccine.

Russian officials are reportedly expecting ‘‘fake news’’ around the efficacy of its SputnikV vaccine, primarily targeted at the European countries that have given emergency approval to the shot such as Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said he was alarmed by the reports. ‘‘This would be pure international cybercrime,’’ he told state media.

In his first real foray into foreign policy since taking office in January, Biden last week signalled he will pursue an aggressive stance against America’s foes.

A simmering feud with Moscow escalated last week when Biden blasted Putin as a ‘‘killer’’, prompting the stung Russian president and his aides to brand the new US leader old and senile. Days earlier, US intelligence agencies released a report into Russia’s attempt to interfere with the November election in Trump’s favour.

‘‘Biden will do something in the next few weeks that Trump never could – preparing for retaliation against Russia,’’ said Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director.

‘‘This would be pure international cybercrime.’’

Dmitry Peskov

Kremlin spokesman