HARRISBURG, Pa. — President Joe Biden is once again urging Americans to boost their cybersecurity.
In a statement Monday, the president said he is "reiterating those warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks."
This is not the first time the administration has warned of possible cyber threats from the former Soviet country, this time though, national security advisers are asking companies to up the score.
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology, is advising businesses to implement multifactor authentication, patching systems against known vulnerabilities, backing up their data, and much more.
Local cybersecurity executives are asking the same.
"If Microsoft is asking you to update or replace, it's best to listen," said Chad Nagle, president of Alliance Business Technologies," For the small businesses, if they're not already working with an IT team, they should find somebody local that they trust, someone that they can sit down and talk to just to start making steps, taking steps, building a plan so they can meet the guidelines that the government is rolling out."
National officials are warning possible attacks may impact U.S. infrastructure which experts say target things like electrical grids and financial and health systems.
"An attack on the electrical grid could knock the electrical power out for a million people," said Bruce Young, professor and leader of cybersecurity and information assurance at Harrisburg University. "It probably wouldn't be across the whole United States, but there would be certain components or sectors that could affect large parts of the population."
Young adds society is heavily moving towards remote activity -- an impact brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, he says individuals are a target as they are working primarily for those trying to gain illegal access to certain organizations.
As remote activity increases, so will technology with the implementation of 5G and other capabilities which means there is no going backward but only forward with a greater need for protection.
"With 5G, the availability for data and communication to go at ever-increasing speed, it's just going to constantly increase, it's going to get faster, [and] there's going to be more data," said Nagle," Protecting ourselves today is paramount."