Cybercrime: Will Biden punish Putin?
Joe Biden has given Vladimir Putin another “clear ultimatum” after two Russia-linked cyberattacks, said Dmitri Alperovitch and Matthew Rojansky in The Washington Post. Just before the July 4 weekend, hundreds of American businesses were hit by a massive ransomware attack carried out by Russian cybercriminals. Around the same time, Russia’s SVR intelligence agency allegedly hacked a contractor for the Republican National Committee. These attacks follow a series of “major cyberbreaches,” including ransomware attacks on the Colonial gas pipeline and the meat processor JBS, that are testing Biden’s “evolving approach of tough engagement” with Russia. Last week, Biden called Putin directly to demand that he stop the attacks. Now he must follow through with painful new sanctions on Russian oil and gas companies, or Putin may conclude “Biden is bluffing.”
Biden has talked tough, but will he actually “enforce his own red lines?” asked The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. In his recent summit with Putin, the president warned the Russian autocrat that the U.S. will retaliate “with cyber” if Russian hackers attack 16 critical infrastructure areas. If Biden fails to follow through after these latest brazen attacks, “it will be open season on
America’s digital infrastructure.” An emboldened Russia could paralyze U.S. businesses and shut down our electrical grid, said Martin Schram in the Chicago Tribune. Biden must tell Putin that America and its democratic allies are prepared to declare him “Global Cyberenemy No. 1” and refuse to deal with Russia or its companies at all. “Putin will get it: Russia’s global trade and global capital sources would suddenly shut down.”
Good luck playing that card, said Eric Geller in Politico.com. Europe “relies overwhelmingly on energy imports from Russia,” and its leaders will resist withdrawing from trade deals. Biden could push to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges to “block ransom payments and starve out the hackers,” but this may just drive cybercriminals to even more anonymized currencies. Offensive U.S. cyberattacks on Russia could lead to even more aggressive attacks on America’s infrastructure. Biden’s options are “limited, challenging, and fraught with peril.” Putin, a former Soviet KGB agent, is determined to prove that Russia is America’s equal, said Leon Aron in TheDispatch .com. He believes respect can be achieved only through aggression and fear. “Welcome to the new Cold War.”