President Joe Biden urged U.S. businesses Monday to take added precautions amid “evolving” intelligence that Russia could target American companies with cyberattacks.
“The magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential, and it’s coming. The federal government is doing its part to get ready,” Biden said while speaking to the Business Roundtable CEO quarterly meeting in Washington.
He called on companies to invest “as much as you can” in beefing up technological capacity to guard against potential attacks.
As the war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last month rages on, the White House released a fact sheet Monday telling U.S. companies to “Act Now to Protect Against Potential Cyberattacks.”
“This is a critical moment to accelerate our work to improve domestic cybersecurity and bolster our national resilience,” Biden said in a statement. “I have previously warned about the potential that Russia could conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States, including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs we’ve imposed on Russia alongside our allies and partners.
“Today, my administration is reiterating those warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks,” he continued.
In its release, the White House pushed companies to mandate the use of multifactor authentication, backup and encrypt data and educate their workforces about tactics hackers may deploy, among other steps.
