"It will be weeks, not months," before the
United States has prepared a response to a major cyberattack allegedly carried out by the
Russian government that included breaches of several U.S. federal agencies, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
Sullivan said the Biden administration has first asked the
American intelligence community to keep gathering information on "how precisely this
Hack occurred" and to get a better sense of what the "scope and scale" of the damage is, but once that gets done, the U.S. will make its move.
Brennan, pointing out that simply sanctioning the
Kremlin hasn't deterred Russian President
Vladimir Putin over the years, asked Sullivan if the U.S. will consider other actions, as well. Sullivan did confirm the response "will not simply be
sanctions because a response to a set of activities" like the hack "requires a more comprehensive set of tools," but he didn't provide any specifics, stating only that the U.S. will use "a mix of tools seen and unseen."