Rounds, Rosen Lead Bipartisan Letter to Homeland Security Secretary Requesting Information on Efforts to Protect the United States from Russian Cyber Threats

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), a member of the Senate Homeland Security, led a bipartisan group of 22 senators in a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security requesting information on efforts to protect the United States from Russian cyber and disinformation threats. The letter references past Russian cyber operations –such the SolarWinds attack – as evidence of their history of engaging in malicious cyber activities that target the United States. 

In addition to Rounds and Rosen, the bipartisan letter was signed by Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Joseph Manchin (D-W.Va.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). 

“The Russian government often engages in malicious cyber activities, including espionage, intellectual property theft, disinformation, propaganda, and cyberattacks, that target the United States. In response, the United States government has imposed sanctions on Russian security personnel and agents for various cyberattacks, including the SolarWinds cyber espionage campaign, and for acts of disinformation and interference, including Russian government-directed attempts to influence U.S. elections,” wrote the senators.

“Given Russia’s history of disruptive cyber and disinformation activities, we are concerned that the United States may be targeted in retaliation for actions taken to impose costs on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine,” the senators’ letter continued. “As we stand with the Ukrainian people, impose crushing sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s regime, and push for additional security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself, we also must work to secure the homeland from retaliatory cyber activities.”

You can read the letter HERE.

###