The White House yesterday announced broad sanctions on Russian intelligence operatives for alleged interference in the 2020 election and on Russian companies for allegedly supporting Moscow’s espionage activity. The Department of the Treasury sanctioned 32 organizations and individuals for allegedly attempting to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Treasury also sanctioned six Russian tech companies for supporting the hacking activity of Russia’s intelligence services.
U.S. officials said they had high confidence that the SolarWinds attack was carried out by Russia’s foreign intelligence agency. In the UK, the National Cyber Security Centre agreed that it was highly likely that the SVR was behind the breach of SolarWinds’ Orion product.
President Joe Biden used a new executive order to authorize the sanctions. The order also prohibits U.S. financial firms from participating in the “primary” bond market maintained by Russia’s Central Bank and other Russian institutions after June 14. The government also has expelled 10 individuals from Russia’s Washington embassy, including representatives from the intelligence services.
Sources:
- CyberScoop: White House Slaps Sanctions on Russian Cyber Activities While Blaming SVR for SolarWinds Campaign
- Federal Computer Week: White House Sanctions Russia over SolarWinds Campaign, Election Interference
- Breaking Defense: US Slaps Russia With Sanctions Plus For SolarWinds Hack
- CyberScoop: U.S. Government Accuses Russian Companies of Recruiting Spies, Hacking for Moscow
- Wired: US Sanctions on Russia Rewrite Cyberespionage’s Rules
- Lawfare: Sanctioning Russia for SolarWinds: What Normative Line Did Russia Cross?