Biden Says Cyber Attacks Could Result In Shooting War With Major Power
By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: July 28th, 2021 11:00PM UTC
Last Modified: July 28th, 2021 11:00PM UTC
WASHINGTON - On Tuesday Joe Biden stated that if it ends up that the United States gets into a "real shooting war" with a "major power" it could be the result of a large scale cyber attack on the United States.
The Biden Administration has been laser focused as of late on the growing threat that both Russia and China pose as a result of aggressive and destabilizing behavior from both countries, as well as cyber attacks the administration suspects were carried out by both countries.
Addressing cyber attacks has been high priority for the Biden administration after the SolarWinds attack suspected to be carried out by Russia, as well as attacks on major US companies such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and a ransomware attack on the JBS meat processing company, along with others.
Biden said, "I think it's more than likely we're going to end up, if we end up in a war - a real shooting war with a major power - it's going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach of great consequence and it's increasing exponentially, the capabilities".
Of the ransomware attacks, Biden said "We’ve seen how cyberthreats including ransomware attacks increasingly are able to cause damage and disruption in the real world".
Of China, Biden stated that the Chinese President Xi Jinping is "deadly earnest about becoming the most powerful military force in the world, as well as the largest and most prominent economy in the world by the mid-40s, the 2040s".
Of Russia, Biden commented on both the state of the Russian economy and how dangerous Putin is saying that he, "has a real problem", and that he is "He's sitting on top of an economy that has nuclear weapons and oil wells and nothing else. Nothing else. Their economy is — what? — the eighth smallest in the world now — largest in the world? He knows he's in real trouble, which makes him even more dangerous, in my view".
Biden also claimed that Russia is allegedly responsible for a disinformation campaign that interfered with the US 2020 elections and said it was a "pure violation of our sovereignty".
