President Biden
Joe BidenEx-Trump’s Personal Assistant Appears Before Defense And National Security Panel Jan. 6 – Russia Sends Warnings To West Over Money – Feds Propose New Disclosure Rule For Public Companies On Monday MORE urged top executives to scale capacity of their companies to deal with potential cyberattacks by Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinDefense & National Security – Russia sends warnings to West Biden tells CEOs they have a ‘patriotic obligation’ to protect against Russian cyberattacks Russian chess grandmaster suspended over public support for invasion MORE amid invasion of Ukraine.
“With the potential exploitation of cybersecurity, not only are your interests at stake, but the national interest as well, and I would respectfully suggest that it is a patriotic obligation on your part to invest as much as you can in ensuring it – and you will.” we do help in any way — that you’ve built your technological capacity to deal with cyberattacks,” Biden said at Monday night’s quarterly Business Roundtable meeting.
Biden said investing in technology to thwart such an attack would protect businesses, continue to provide critical services and help protect Americans’ privacy.
He said that cyberattacks are one of the tools Putin “is most likely to use.” The White House on Monday urged private companies to step up their cyber defenses, citing developing information that suggests the Russian government is investigating potential cyberattacks.
“He has an ability, he hasn’t used it yet, but it’s part of his playbook,” Biden said in his remarks to the business roundtable.
For example, the President suggested that banks could help by enabling additional cybersecurity measures for each customer by default.
“It is your decision what steps you will take and your responsibility to take them, not ours,” he said.
The President’s appearance at the quarterly meeting was announced on Friday. Josh Bolten, CEO of the Business Roundtable and former Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, introduced Biden while Mary Barra, Chair of the Business Roundtable and CEO of General Motors, moderated a closed Q&A with CEOs and the President.
In his remarks, Biden also warned the group of CEOs that Putin was using biological and chemical weapons in Europe.
“The more his back is against the wall, the stricter he can apply his tactics,” he said.
And he dismissed criticism that the US had not provided enough military equipment to help Ukraine fight back.
“The idea that they don’t have enough sophisticated equipment just doesn’t hold true. I’m not going to take the time to go into all the details here, but the point is that they have every, every piece of equipment that makes rational sense based on our military and the NATO military so they’re able to what to do,” Biden said.
He added that the Ukrainians are “ravaging” the Russian military.
In addition, the President thanked the companies for helping the US and its allies impose sanctions on Russia. The US recently ended normalized trade relations with Moscow.
“You’ve done a hell of a lot to help us impose sanctions and create costs, real costs, to the Russian economy and we see now that it mattered, it mattered really, what you all did – not all of you, I’m not saying all of you had to, but those of you who went up, it made a huge difference,” he said.
Hundreds of US-based companies have suspended some or all of their operations in Russia, including Apple, Visa, McDonald’s, Disney and Coca-Cola.
The business roundtable didn’t release an attendee list for the meeting Monday, but its board includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimond, and Citi CEO Jane Fraser, among others.
“We are also leaders on the global stage because of all of you. I’m excited to see American companies step up and do their part and what you’re doing to donate to Ukraine and go out of business without anyone asking,” Biden said. “I want to get this straight, you are busy conducting your business in Russia, not all, but many have been doing it, not just you but around the world.”
Earlier Monday, Biden and other government officials met with executives from 16 companies across multiple industries, including oil, clean energy and banks, to discuss the situation with Russia.