Biden's response to cyberattacks by Russia will go beyond 'just sanctions': Report

US President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff Ron Klain on December 20 that the administration’s response to the major cyberattack on US federal agencies uncovered only last week would be beyond sanctions. While talking on CBS, Klain said that the President-elect is figuring out ways that would push back the foreign governments including the suspected Russian hackers, who have penetrated a range of government agencies along with exposing thousands of American companies.

“It’s not just sanctions. It’s steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to engage in this sort of attack,” Klain said.

While Klain indicated stringent response of the cyberattacks,  Trump cast doubt on Russia’s role in two tweets on December 19 while hinting at China’s involvement. As US federal agencies are rocked with the recent discovery of major cyberattack and President Donald Trump downplayed the breach, Republican Senator for Utah, Mitt Romney said Trump has a “blind spot for Russia” and called the large-scale hacks on organisations a “big wake-up call”.

Read - Putin Visits Foreign Intelligence Service HQ To 'congratulate' Amid US Cyberattack Row

While talking to CNN, Romney said that because the US President has a ‘blind spot’ for Russia, the response he laid out in brief tweets on Saturday was ‘expected’ because Trump dismissed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s remarks of Russia being ‘clearly involved’ in the cyberattacks that posed ‘grave risk’. 

In one of the latest blows to US President Donald Trump’s administration in its closing days, a dozen of federal agencies were crippled with a massive cyberattack which is reportedly described as the biggest breach in several years. Triggering speculation of Russian hackers’ involvement, US officials reportedly said that the hacks have been ongoing for several months allowing the ones who breached the websites to monitor as well as read US’ confidential emails. 

Read - US Cyberattack: Republican Senator Blasts Trump, Says He Has 'blind Spot For Russia'

US Cyberattack 'genuinely impacted' over 50 organisations 

The US cyber-security firm that had identified the large-scale hacking of country’s several federal agencies has reportedly said that it “genuinely impacted” at least 50 organisations. As per the BBC report, the CEO of FireEye, Kevin Mandia said that even though 18,000 organisations had the malevolent code in their networks, it was 50 of them that had suffered major impact and security breaches. Some of the affected organisations include US Treasury and departments of homeland security, state and defence among others. 

Read - US Cyberattack 'genuinely Impacted' Over 50 Organisations With Significant Breach: Report

Read - Donald Trump Downplays Cyberattack, Says 'Fake News' Calling It Bigger Than It Is