US President Barack Obama has announced plans for a retaliatory strike in response to Russia's hacking of US elections. The US President has issued new sanctions against, ejecting 35 Russian diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington D.C. and Russian consulate in San Francisco. Unfortunately, some security experts are not happy about this decision, including Intel Security Group.

US Announced Plans For Sanctions
According to Reuters, the US government is readying a retaliatory strike, a response to alleged Russian's hacking of US election last November. The US President has ordered a closure of Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in response to what the American official described was Russian harassment of US diplomats in Moscow, Russia. The Russian diplomats have just given 72 hours to leave the US soil, according to Business Insiders.

In doing this, President Obama has altered an executive order that he issued last April 2015, which allows the US to retaliate against any kinds of cyberattacks to include also those interfering with election processes.

The newly updated executive order has now fully authorized the US President to impose a sanction against nine entities, including individuals linked to GRU (Russia's foreign military intelligence agency) and FSB (Russia's primary security agency). The new sanctions target Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU and also FSB, for assisting GRU in the hacking operations, according to Wall Street Journal.

In addition, four other high-ranking officers of the GRU were also sanctioned along with the three companies that provided technical support to the GRU's cyber operations.

Intel Security Warns Obama Administration About Its New Sanctions Against Russia
Intel Security Group, one of the world's largest dedicated security technology company, has issued a warning that retaliation could have unintended consequences, including actual conflict.

In a recent statement, Intel Security Group Chief Technology Officer Steve Grobman warned that the US government must understand the catastrophic consequences of a digital conflict escalating into a more dangerous, conventional shooting war.

The Intel Security CTO also added that this kind of decision increases the risk to civilian lives as countries like Russia and US would see the need to retaliate or even escalate it into a shooting war.

The Intel Security Groups has encouraged the US government to expand the definition of the country's digital infrastructure to include the nation's digital election system. Intel has also urged US officials to strengthen security around the nation's digital election system to prevent another hacking and intrusion.

At this time, the Obama administration is considering other options like additional economic sanctions against Russia, leaking embarrassing information about Russian leaders, restriction of Russian diplomats in the U.S. soil and even disrupting Russia's internet access.

Based in Santa Clara, California, Intel Security Group is a leading computer security software company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel since February 2011. It's now part of its Intel Security division, according to Bloomberg.

Topics Cyber Attack, Barack Obama