DHS warns of potential Russia cyberattacks amid tensions

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN

Russia would consider conducting a cyberattack on the US homeland if Moscow perceived that a US or NATO response to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine “threatened [Russia’s] long-term national security,” according to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN.

“Russia maintains a range of offensive cyber tools that it could employ against US networks—from low-level denials-of-service to destructive attacks targeting critical infrastructure,” says the January 23 memo, which DHS distributed to critical infrastructure operators and state and local governments.

Despite US tensions with Russia over Ukraine, DHS analysts assess that Moscow’s threshold for conducting disruptive or destructive cyberattacks on the US homeland “probably remains very high,” the memo says. “[W]e have not observed Moscow directly employ these types of cyber attacks against US critical infrastructure—notwithstanding cyber espionage and potential prepositioning operations in the past.”

CNN has requested comment from DHS, which regularly distributes intelligence to private firms and state and local governments.

US officials have been bracing for potential retaliatory cyberattacks from the Kremlin as Russia has threatened to invade Ukraine by amassing some 100,000 troops along the Ukraine border. The Treasury Department held a classified briefing that covered the issue for big US banks, while the Energy Department has briefed America’s largest electric utilities on Russian cyber capabilities, CNN previously reported.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.