Thread by @ericgeller

White House briefing starting now. Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber, is one of the speakers.

Neuberger: “While there are currently no specific or credible cyber threats to the homeland, the U.S. government has been preparing for potential geopolitical contingencies since before Thanksgiving.”

Essentially confirming recent WaPo story, Neuberger says USG "believes that Russian cyber actors likely have targeted the Ukrainian government, including military and critical infrastructure networks, to collect intelligence & preposition to conduct disruptive cyber activities."

Neuberger: "We believe that the Russian government is responsible for wide-scale cyber attacks on Ukrainian banks this week."

First word from the Biden administration that Russia was behind the DDoS attacks.

Neuberger says infrastructure belonging to Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, aka the GRU, "was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine-based IP addresses and domains."

Since November, Neuberger says, the U.S. has "further intensified our support to the government of Ukraine, specifically to network defenders, working to help them respond to and recover from cyber incidents, as well as strengthen the resilience of cyber critical infrastructure."

The U.S. shared the intelligence underpinning its DDoS attribution with Ukrainian and European partners, Neuberger says.

She says the attacks were "consistent with what a Russian effort could look like in laying the groundwork" for more disruptive hacks accompanying an invasion.

Neuberger, asked when U.S. attributed: “The speed with which we made that attribution … is very unusual, and we've done so because of a need to call out the behavior quickly, as part of holding nations accountable when they conduct disruptive or destabilizing cyber activity.”

Q: Are you confident that private sector is prepared for spillover?

Neuberger: “We are confident that we have worked closely with the private sector to press critical infrastructure owners and operators in the private sector to take the necessary steps to deploy cyber defenses.”

Neuberger: "We've shared sensitive information ... and we've exercised the maximum of government authorities to mandate those steps as needed. We know that, should anything occur, we'll work closely with the private sector to rapidly respond and recover.”

Several of the White House reporters' questions about possible hacks of critical infrastructure have focused on banks. (One asked if Americans can be confident that their money is safe.)

But the banks, and our money, are arguably the best protected of any infrastructure.

Asked if a hack of Ukraine's power grid would be a red line for the U.S. triggering retaliatory cyberattacks, Neuberger says "disruptive or destructive attacks," especially against infrastructure, are "of significant concern" and "outside the boundaries of international norms."

Asked which infrastructure sectors are the most vulnerable, Neuberger cites power, comms, and water, three places where infrastructure has "digitized quickly" and needs a resilience boost.