US prepares to take action against Russia after major cyber attacks

The United States is preparing to take action against Russia after concluding that it was likely involved in a major cyberattack that affected government systems and local businesses, The New York Times reported Sunday. The move comes as Biden’s government begins to grapple with the revelation of another alleged state-backed attack apparently coming from China.

The White House has confirmed that it will take a “mix of actions” in response to the cyber attack from Russia, although it does not provide details on when and how it would do so.

‘Like we said, we’ll respond to the Solar[W]ins hack with a mix of actions seen and unseen, “Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said in a statement to CNBC.” We will not discuss certain aspects of our response in public. ”

The US cracked down on the attack discovered a few months ago by IT firm SolarWinds. U.S. officials said they believe Russians were behind the crime, which has affected several government agencies using the technology.

Anonymous officials told the Times that the first of the US actions would take place in the next three weeks and a series of actions would begin in Russia, which should have been noticed by President Vladimir Putin and his intelligence staff, but not by the public. The U.S. will also impose economic sanctions and President Joe Biden will sign an executive order to strengthen government networks, officials said.

The news comes days after Microsoft unveiled a new major breach of its services related to hackers in China. A source familiar with the U.S. government’s response told Reuters on Friday that more than 20,000 U.S. organizations had been compromised by the attack. According to the US investigation, according to Reuters, governments and credit unions were found to be among those affected. Microsoft did not disclose the exact scope of the attacks, but initially said it was “limited and targeted.”

Read the full story at The New York Times.

CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: How the massive SolarWinds hood went down