A month after President Barack Obama confronted Russian leader Vladimir Putin to warn him to “cut it out” after discovering the Kremlin was interfering in the 2016 election, his National Security Council took the rare step of using a cyber hotline to relay the same message.
Michael Daniel, Obama’s cyber czar, said administration officials used the channel — added to the nuclear hotline in 2013 so the countries could communicate about hacking and cyberattacks — to tell the Kremlin to “knock it off.”
“We know that you are carrying out these kinds of activities. And stop. Knock it off,” Daniel told CBS’ “60 Minutes” about the call on Oct. 7, 2016.
Asked if Russia got the message, Daniel said he thinks so.
“The fact that this was the first time we had ever exercised this channel, which was supposed to be, you know, for very serious cyber incidents and cyber issues — I think that, in and of itself — sent a message,” he said.
The Obama administration resorted to using the hotline after earlier the same day, it released its first public statement about how Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities, ” it said.
The administration issued the statement at 3:30 p.m., just a half-hour before the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump was captured on an old “Access Hollywood” tape making comments about grabbing women by the genitals.