Biden handed Putin a list of 16 things that are off limits to Russian hacking.. WTF! How can one man be so utterly stupid as to hand over a list of   things that are so important to Putin who promptly handed the 16 item list to his cyber-attackers with instructions to “go get ’em”.

Here’s proof positive of the utter stupidity of President Joe Biden who, on Wednesday said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that critical infrastructure should be off-limits to cyberattacks, as the two leaders agreed to begin talks on cybersecurity issues.

“I talked about the proposition that certain critical infrastructure should be off limits to attack, period,” Biden told reporters in Geneva, adding that he gave Putin a list of 16 entities including energy and water systems.

Addressing reporters at his own news conference before Biden spoke, Putin said he and the U.S. leader “spoke the same language” and that the talks were “quite constructive.” The two countries agreed to return their respective ambassadors to their posts, Putin said.

Biden has taken Russia to task for harboring hackers who have disrupted American businesses, and blasted Moscow’s interference in U.S. elections. Biden has also said the potential death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny would be an indication Russia “has little or no intention of abiding by basic fundamental human rights.”

Putin told reporters on Wednesday that Navalny “knew that he was breaking the law” when he went to Germany for treatment after being poisoned with a nerve agent.

The Russian leader has pointed to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms. He’s insisted the Russian government hasn’t been involved in election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.

Putin told reporters he’d agreed to start talks on cybersecurity but added, “most of the cyber attacks in the world come from the United States.”

Cyberattacks have been thrust into the political spotlight after the May shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, and a separate attack on JBS JBSS3, -0.86%, the world’s biggest meatpacker. JBS notified the U.S. government of a ransom demand from the ransomware gang REvil, which is believed to operate in Russia, the Associated Press reported. A group called “Darkside” believed to be operating out of Russia disabled Colonial’s computer network.

Putin, with a smirk, denied any responsibility for the Colonial Pipeline attack at his news conference, as though there would be some advantage to him if he admitted it. How utterly dumb is president Joe Biden. Here’s hoping Jill can get involved and that she starts attacking Russia’s cyber industries..

****************************

U.S. Intelligence officials concluded earlier this year that Russian government-backed hackers were behind the SolarWinds attack, which involved the hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in software updates from IT group SolarWinds to compromise nine federal agencies and over 100 private sector groups.

Russia is known as one of the greatest threats to the U.S. in cyberspace, and U.S. officials previously concluded the nation was behind hacking and disinformation efforts in the lead up to the 2016 U.S. elections.

The Biden administration has been forced by the Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds attacks, among other escalating cyber threats, to take immediate action to strengthen federal cybersecurity.

As part of this, Biden signed an executive order Wednesday night to take a range of actions to make it more difficult for hackers to successfully compromise federal agencies. The order requires the establishment of baseline security standards for all software sold to the government, and that IT groups doing business with the federal government report breaches.

Additionally, the administration launched a 100-day initiative in April to secure the electric sector against cyberattacks, with initiatives also planned to secure other critical sectors including the oil and gas industry.

“Private entities are in charge of their own cybersecurity,” Biden said Thursday. “We know what they need, they need greater private sector investment in cybersecurity.”

To further promote cybersecurity, Biden called on the Senate to vote on and approve the nominations of former National Security Agency Deputy Director Chris Inglis to serve as national cyber director at the White House, and of Jen Easterly to serve as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Additionally, he stressed the importance of passing his infrastructure package to strengthen critical systems against attacks, and for Congress to take action to help the private sector defend itself.

“I cannot dictate that the private companies do certain things relative to cybersecurity,” Biden said. “I think it’s becoming clear to everyone that we have to do more than is being done now, and the federal government can be significant value-added in having that happen.”

Visits: 2