Anonymous

“ The safety and wellbeing of U.S. military personnel and that of our allies and partners is a matter of the absolute highest U.S. national security interest. Our men and women in uniform have defended our country from harm and promoted our interests and values around the world. They will continue to do so, and we cannot and will not accept the targeting of our personnel like this.
As we take these actions, we also want to be clear that we have no desire to be in an escalatory cycle with Russia. ”

“ The Russians have not responded to that to say whether they will — whether President Putin will participate in such a summit. But we believe that, in the coming months, it will be vital for the two leaders to sit down to discuss the full range of issues facing our relationship. And as responsible — and it is the responsibility of the leaders of significant countries, like Russia and the United States, to sit together to find a stable and effective way forward and to stop any kind of escalatory cycle from spinning out of control. ”

“ We do not seek, we do not desire a downward spiral. We think we can and should avoid that. But we have also been clear, publicly and privately, that we will defend our national interests and that we will impose costs on Russian government actions that seek to harm our sovereignty.
In his first conversation with President Putin not long after his inauguration, President Biden raised our strong concerns about a number of harmful foreign activities by Russia and indicated that the United States would respond. ”

“ So putting the muscle of U.S. spending on information technology behind building more secure software and hardware is a key step to help companies and governments in the U.S. and around the world have the benefit of more secure software and hardware and, over the longer-term, counter sophisticated malicious cyber activity, as we saw in SolarWinds. ”

“ Those efforts should serve as a warning about the risks of using information and communications technology and services supplied by companies that operate or store user data in Russia, or rely on software development or remote technical support by personnel in Russia.
The U.S. government strongly encourages all U.S. companies using communications or technologies supplied by companies with ties to Russia to evaluate the security of their infrastructure and be aware of the potential for future U.S. action that may affect their operation. ”

“ First, the United States is strengthening our efforts to promote a framework of responsible state behavior in cyberspace and to cooperate with allies and partners to counter malign cyber activities, such as what we’ve seen perpetrated by Moscow. ”

“ The exercise will build a community of defensive cyber operators and improve overall capability of the U.S. and our allies to identify, synchronize, and respond in unison against malicious cyberspace activities targeting our critical infrastructure and key resources. ”

“ Q A little bit more on the SolarWinds issue here. You know, there’s been some discussion about whether or not a response is warranted, given that, by — by most accounts, it is a cyber espionage campaign, albeit a rather broad and successful one at that.Could you just explain a little bit more about why the SolarWinds attack is deserving of such a response, given that the U.S. and its allies also engages in cyber espionage and there has been a lot of discussion about whether or not this is any way different than — than those activities? ”

“ Our conclusion is based on information and evidence of connections between criminal agents in Afghanistan and elements of the Russian government. This information puts a burden on the Russian government to explain its actions and take steps to address this disturbing pattern of behavior. ”