Readout of CISA Call with Critical Infrastructure Partners on Potential Russian Cyberattacks Against the United States

During a three-hour call, CISA Director Jen Easterly, Deputy Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Matt Hartman, and Tonya Ugoretz, Deputy Assistant Director for the FBI’s cyber division, encouraged organizations of all sizes to have their Shields Up to cyber threats and take proactive measures now to mitigate risk to their networks. They encouraged those on the line to visit CISA.gov/Shields-Up to take action to protect their organizations and themselves and urged all critical infrastructure providers to implement the mitigation guidelines enumerated on CISA.gov/Shields-Up, including:

• Mandate the use of multi-factor authentication on your systems to make it harder for attackers to get onto your system.
• Update the software on your computers and devices to continuously look for and mitigate threats.
• Back up your data and ensure you have offline backups beyond the reach of malicious actors.
• Run exercises and drill your emergency plans so that you are prepared to respond quickly to minimize the impact of any attack.
• Encrypt your data.
• Sign up for CISA’s free cyber hygiene services.
• Educate your employees to common tactics that attackers will use over email or through websites, and encourage them to report if their computers or phones have shown unusual behavior, such as unusual crashes or operating very slowly.

Director Easterly urged all organizations, regardless of size, to contact CISA immediately if they believe they may have been impacted by a cyber incident. When cyber incidents are reported quickly, CISA can use the information to render assistance and help prevent other organizations and entities from falling victim to a similar attack. All organizations should report incidents and anomalous activity to report@cisa.gov or call the 24/7 CISA Central Operations Center at (888) 282-0870.

LINK