The White House plans to announce diplomatic censure, economic sanctions, covert action that could include cyber operations and other measures as punishment for Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election through cyber intrusions, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Administration officials familiar with the matter told the publication that the sanctions will be unveiled after weeks of discussion on how the Obama administration will modify an April 2015 executive order in order to provide the U.S. president authority to respond to international cyber attacks that have an impact on the electoral system.
Ellen Nakashima writes Russia denied involvement in the cyber breach related to the U.S. election interference.
The 2015 executive order seeks to authorize the U.S. government to use sanctions as a tool to make foreign threat actors accountable for cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure and theft of trade secrets, according to the report.
Sanctions include restrictions on the entry of cyber threat actors into the U.S., asset freezing methods and measures to bar commercial transactions with individuals involved in cyber intrusions, Nakashima reports.
The possible sanctions against Russia come weeks after the CIA released its secret assessment, which found that Russia carried out cyber intrusions in order to help Donald Trump get elected as U.S. president.
