MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Washington announced that it unilaterally shuts down the communication channel on cybersecurity with Moscow, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Oleg Khramov said in an interview for Rossiyskaya Gazeta Thursday.
He noted that, after the elimination of the REvil hacker group in February this year, Russia sent its proposals to the White House on development of joint measures on defense of both countries’ critical infrastructure. According to the official, prior to that, Russia and the US exchanged a list of critical infrastructure within the "Kremlin - White House" joint group under the aegis of the Russian Security Council and US National Security Council.
"However, the White House has notified us now that it unilaterally withdraws from the negotiations process and shuts down the communication channel," says Khramov, who leads the joint group from the Russian side.
Khramov noted that, according to its military doctrine, US cyber command and cyber forces may use information and communication technologies to carry out pre-emptive strikes on critically important objects. The US also has "cyber bases" abroad, the official said, such as the National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters in Hamburg, where, "outside of Germany’s jurisdiction, apparently, hundreds of professional hackers are working tirelessly for US’ interests," or like NATO cyber operations centers in the Baltics.