On June 16th, President Biden had his first face-to-face meeting with the Russian autocrat as commander-in-chief, and amongst the most crucial topics of conversation was cybersecurity, especially after the recent ransomware attacks on U.S Pipelines which eminated from Russia (despite Putin’s denial of responsibility). In this first meeting, the two world leaders were reported to have agreed to further talks on the subject, but have yet to give any concrete details regarding the substance of such talks. As for what the two have already discussed, President Biden is said to have made clear 16 critical sectors that the United States will not tolerate any interference with. The implication was that, should Russia cross the red line and attack these sectors in any capacity, the U.S would be willing to respond in kind. To that end, President Biden claimed to have made clear to Putin the United States has its own formidable cyber capabilities that we would be prepared to bring to bear if necessary.
Going forward, it remains to be seen if future cyber talks between the two world leaders will, in fact, be conducted, or if Putin will continue to challenge the U.S on this front, perhaps by making a greater effort to ensure hacks cannot be traced affirmatively back to Russia, or perhaps by targetting sectors not included in Biden’s aformentioned list. And the extent to which the U.S is actually willing to utilize its own cyber capabilities against adversaries like Russia and China remains anybody’s guess.
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