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White House officials have repeatedly warned that evolving intelligence suggests Russia may be exploring potential cyberattacks against the United States. Now, that possibility is all but certain, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said Sunday.
“We have to assume that there’s going to be a breach,” Easterly said on “60 Minutes.” “There’s going to be an incident. There’s going to be an attack.”
Russia is known to have powerful cyber actors. U.S. intelligence agencies and federal prosecutors have concluded that the Russian government sought to sway the 2016 presidential election. Recently, Microsoft said it disrupted Russian cyberattacks targeting Ukraine, the U.S., and European Union.
Lisa Monaco, U.S. Deputy Attorney General, told Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes” that Russian state actors are already looking for weaknesses in U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure.
“We’re talking military intelligence actors, deploying malware, malicious code, on thousands of computers in hundreds of countries,” Monaco said Sunday. “We’re seeing them deploy that code and take control of these computers. It’s like an army of infected computers that, with a single command, can be deployed to do everything from gathering information, stealing information, and sometimes to have destructive effect.”
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Latest developments:
►Russia is creating separatist states and introducing the Russian ruble in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.
►The Russian military forcibly removed over 100 children from Mariupol, many taken from hospitals without parents, the Crimean Human Rights Group reported, citing Mariupol’s mayoral advisor Petro Andryushchenko.
Zelenskyy says Russian troops are torturing, kidnapping Ukrainians
In his nightly address to the Ukrainian people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings.
“Torture chambers are built there,” he said. “They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.”
Russia has come under increasing scrutiny as mounting evidence builds of military attacks against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha and other parts of Ukraine, leading U.S. President Joe Biden to call Putin’s actions “genocide.”
“This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians,” Zelenskyy said.
– Celina Tebor
Several European countries ban Russian ships from their ports
Belgium, Estonia, and Bulgaria are barring all Russian ships from their ports beginning Sunday. Their announcement comes the same day as Italy’s, as part of expanded EU sanctions announced earlier this month.
Ships already in Italian ports must leave immediately “after completing their commercial activity,″ according to a notice sent to port authorities throughout the country.
The bans apply to all Russian-flagged ships, including those that have changed their flag from Russia to any other nationality since Feb. 24, the date of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The EU has imposed five rounds of sanctions against Russia, including the banning of ships in its fifth round. Leaders are still weighing a ban on Russian oil, with many European countries dependent on it.
– Celina Tebor
Contributing: The Associated Press
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