Enlarge image
U.S. President Joe Biden (July 13)
Photo: Yuri Gripas / POOL / EPA
Recently there had been a whole series of large-scale hacks on US companies - with consequences far beyond the companies concerned.
With this in mind, US President Joe Biden warns of the growing threat of real war.
"I think it is more than likely that we will end up in a war - a real war with a great power - as a result of a major cyberattack, and the likelihood is growing exponentially," Biden said while visiting the chief's office of the National Intelligence Service (ODNI) on Tuesday.
The government in Washington sees a growing threat from Russia and China.
Biden said Chinese President Xi Jinping is "dead serious" when it comes to "becoming the most powerful military power in the world and the largest and most important economy in the world by the mid-1940s, that is, by 2040."
Cyber security is high on the agenda of the Biden government.
Most recently, a number of high-profile attacks on companies such as the network management company SolarWinds, the Colonial Pipeline company, the meat processing company JBS and the software company Kaseya have harmed the US far more than just the hacked companies.
Some of the attacks affected fuel and food supplies in parts of the United States.
Biden's predecessor was in a constant dispute with the secret services
Biden stressed that he would not put any political pressure on the intelligence service, which oversees 17 secret services.
His statement signifies a clear departure from the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, who had repeatedly clashed with the US secret services.
Issues were, for example, Russia's role in Trump's election victory in 2016 or the revelation that the then president had put pressure on Ukraine to initiate investigations against Biden.
Trump replaced four directors of the national intelligence services during his four-year tenure.
jok / Reuters
