President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he will personally deliver a message to Vladimir Putin about the rash of cyber attacks taking place on American companies and groups.
'I will deliver it to him,' he told reporters at the White House when asked his message for the Russian president.
It's unclear how the message will be transmitted or when and comes less than three weeks after he warned Putin he would respond if the US was hit by another hack.
Biden's new message came after conservatives criticized him for an early lackluster response to the latest cyber attack.
Last week, a U.S. software firm was hit by a REvil - a Russian cybercriminal group - in a ransomware attack that crippled hundreds of companies worldwide.
Kaseya provides services to more than 40,000 organizations and it was considered the single, largest global ransomware attack on record.
Additionally, Russia’s S.V.R. intelligence agency hacked a contractor for the Republican National Committee last week, the New York Times reported, although the committee said none of its data had been breached.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday the administration won't 'preview our punches' and has a 'range of options' when it comes to a response.
President Joe Biden said that he will personally deliver a message to Vladimir Putin about the rash of cyber attacks
It's unclear how President Biden will deliver his message to President Vladimir Putin and what it will be
And Psaki said on Tuesday that the US and Russia have kept up a dialogue on the issue since the June 16 sitdown between the two leaders.
Since the Geneva summit 'we have undertaken expert-level talks that are continuing, and we expect to have another meeting next week focused on ransomware attacks,' she said.
'And I will just reiterate a message that these officials are sending. As the President made clear to President Putin when they met, if the Russian government cannot or will not take action against criminal actors residing in Russia, we will take action or reserve the right to take action on our own,' she added.
The White House
