Pentagon Spox: ‘We Certainly Hope’ Putin Isn’t Ignoring Biden’s Warnings on Cyberattacks

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said that the government hopes Vladimir Putin isn’t ignoring President Joe Biden’s warnings on cyberattacks.

Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “Is Putin ignoring Biden’s warning?”

Kirby responded, “Well, we certainly hope not. I think the president was very clear about how seriously we take these threats, and that these — certainly these ransomware attacks are emanating from Russia and that there is a sense of responsibility that Moscow should feel over that and that if they don’t, that there will be consequences. I think the president has been crystal clear about how seriously we’re taking this and about the potential repercussions for Moscow if they don’t do something about it.”

He added, “I don’t think we want to be on a war footing for cyberattacks, Brianna. That’s certainly not where we want to be. But we are in a state of vigilance, obviously, and we have to continue to work on the resilience of our networks and our capabilities and to be able to have options available to the president should he want to use them. Some options in the cyber world, options outside the cyber world. That’s what we do here at DOD is to try to help him have those kinds of options. But nobody wants to see this become a war footing or an era of conflict. There’s no reason for that if nations like Russia, if leaders like Vladimir Putin are willing to act responsibly in this cyber space.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett