Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Columnist

The Problem With Biden’s Red Line to Putin on Cyberattacks

A list of 16 “untouchable” entities raises the question of whether other targets are fair game.

June 20, 2021 at 12:00 PM UTC

Meghan L. O’Sullivan is a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the North American chair of the Trilateral Commission, she served on the National Security Council from 2004 to 2007.

Cyberthreat.
Photographer: Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP/Getty Image

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Did President Joe Biden just issue a red line to Russian leader Vladimir Putin? When Biden described the warning he presented to Putin on cyberattacks, it certainly sounded like one. This is both surprising and potentially problematic, but could also spur much-needed progress in the development of norms and doctrine in cyberspace.

Biden called his handing to Putin a list of 16 untouchable infrastructure entities a “proposition.” But it was an odd proposition indeed, as it came with the promise of serious consequences if such sites were hacked.