Biden Starts Cyber War With Russia

Biden finally showed some authority and called out Russian President Vladimir Putin to take action against the several ransomware groups that have been operating in Russia and attacking American businesses. 

Ransomware is a type of malicious software used by hackers to hold data hostage in exchange for money. Over the last year, American organizations have been at the mercy of these hacking groups, and they don’t seem to stop.

This past May, we saw a cyber attack by a Russian group on the Colonial Pipeline, freezing operations and setting off a gas shortage as well as price spikes and panic buying along the East Coast.

Right after that, a different group – known as REvil – struck JBS, a global meatpacker, causing a brief disruption to the distribution of meat products for several weeks.  

Many of these groups are operating out of Russia, under the watchful eyes of their government who seems to know it’s happening but have no intention of stopping it anytime soon.

Biden’s message to Putin was clear, that he was growing impatient with the Russians’ lack of awareness over the gravity of the situation.

“I made it very clear to him that the United States expects, when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is”

Biden talks pretty big, with a confidence that appears to say ‘I’ve got the Russians under my thumb’, but Biden as usual, these are just empty threats to appear authoritarian.

In a recent conversation with reporters, Biden claimed that there would be consequences for Russian inaction and that the US has hinted at their own digital retaliation. However, other than this, no other plans were mentioned discussing the US’ actual response efforts that have taken place. 

This back and forth has been going on for too long now, with both sides pointing fingers in a he said she said argument. 

This confrontation is a major test of Biden’s capabilities to hold a firm stance for America, while also maintaining his goal of developing a healthy relationship with Russia.

So far his attempts have fallen ridiculously flat. 

The attacks keep coming, with damage from one of the latest attacks affecting as many as 1,500 businesses worldwide… 

Biden has shown weakness to Putin in the past – making America look feeble and helpless – and now he wants to show dominance over Russia? That doesn’t seem likely to end well…