Security News > 2021 > May > US Says Agencies Largely Fended Off Latest Russian Hack
The White House says it believes U.S. government agencies largely fended off the latest cyberespionage onslaught blamed on Russian intelligence operatives, saying the spear-phishing campaign should not further damage relations with Moscow ahead of next month's planned presidential summit.
The revelation of a new spy campaign so close to the June 16 summit between President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin adds to the urgency of White House efforts to confront the Kremlin over aggressive cyber activity that criminal indictments and diplomatic sanctions have done little to deter.
The summit comes amid simmering tensions driven in part by election interference by Moscow and by a massive breach of U.S. government agencies and private corporations by Russian elite cyber spies who infected the software supply chain with malicious code.
Asked Friday whether the latest hacking effort would affect the Biden-Putin summit, principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "We're going to move forward with that."
The U.S., which has previously called out Russia or criminal groups based there for hacking operations, did not blame anyone for the latest incident.
Bobby Chesney, a University of Texas at Austin law professor specializing in national security, said it is nowhere near as serious as the SolarWinds hack.