Following a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, President Joe Biden told reporters that he gave Putin a list of 16 infrastructure entities that are "off-limits" to cyberattacks.
According to Fox News, the listed entities include "energy, water, health care, emergency, chemical, nuclear, communications, government, defense, food, commercial facilities, IT, transportation, dams, manufacturing and financial services."
Recently, both Colonial Pipeline and JBS Holdings, a meat-processing company, faced cyberattacks that were linked back to Russian Cybercriminal Group, Darkside
Putin, on his part, denied any involvement in the recent cyberattacks. In a press conference on his own, Putin claimed that sources from America say that a "majority" of the world's cyberattacks come from within the U.S.
"We'll find out whether we have a cybersecurity arrangement that begins to bring some order," Biden said.
"I looked at him. I said, 'How would you feel if ransomware took on the pipelines from your oil fields?' He (Putin) said, 'It would matter.' This is not about just our self-interest." Biden asserted.
When asked if military action was an option if Russia was found to be responsible for the cyberattack, Biden abruptly tried to end the press conference.
"Thank you very much," Biden said before saying "no, we didn't talk about military response," when pressed again by reporters.
On Thursday, Putin praised Biden as a "professional" after Wednesday's Summit in Geneva.
"Biden is a professional, and one should work very attentively with him to avoid missing any detail. I can say with certainty that he never misses a single detail. This was absolutely obvious for me," Putin said, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The Russian president also defended Biden as someone who was "fully in the know" despite his portrayal by the mainstream media.
"He is fully in the know. He looked into his notes from time to time, but we are all doing this," Putin said. "The image of President Biden portrayed by our and even by the American media has nothing to do with reality."
Related:
States across the East Coast Experience Fuel Outages following Pipeline Cyberattack
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
