U.S. officials have very publicly worried that Putin’s government might retaliate against America over its support for Ukraine. One of the easiest ways Russia could do this without openly starting WWIII is via a sneaky cyberattack—potentially on U.S. infrastructure.
This threat seems to be keeping a lot of people up at night. During a press appearance two weeks ago, President Joe Biden said: “Based on evolving intelligence, Russia may be planning a cyberattack against us.” Biden also warned U.S. companies to steel themselves for such attacks. The FBI has similarly warned that Russian groups make try to attack America’s energy grid. Meanwhile, editorials—from The Atlantic to The Boston Globe—have sounded the alarm that America might be on the precipice of getting zapped.
Russia certainly has the capabilities. The government has both the necessary political motivation and connections to big, scary hacker groups. Threat analysts say Russia have a proven track record of seriously wrecking shit digitally—just check out Sandworm’s alleged attack on the Ukraine electrical grid in 2015.
However, as of right now, all of those fears have failed to materialize into any real, active threat. As of right now, we seem to be ok.