The United States keeps its promises to reprisals against Russia for his alleged involvement in the SolarWinds Cyberattack. the AP reports that President Biden has excluded 10 Russian diplomats from Washington, DC, including members of the intelligence services, in response to actions that include the SolarWinds hack. The White House also imposed sanctions on 32 “entities and individuals” in response to Election interference 2020 attempts.
Biden officially blamed the Russian-backed cyberattack group Cozy bear (aka APT29) as the culprit of the SolarWinds violation. The FBI, NSA and CISA also issued a joint cybersecurity advisory warning of vulnerabilities used by Russian intelligence services to compromise networks. The Treasury Department, meanwhile, said six Russian tech companies were involved in creating the tools for “malicious cyber activity.”
The US government was considering taking further steps to protect the technology supply chain from “further exploitation” by Russia, the White House added.
The actions also encompass a number of non-tech concerns, such as bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, Russia’s ongoing actions in Crimea, and attempts to silence Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Russia has consistently denied accusations of hacking and election interference regardless of the evidence. It’s unclear how the country will react to these latest US measures outside of denials, but it’s safe to say that President Putin is unlikely to simply drop hacking or meddling campaigns when past sanctions did not change his position.
