Obama Uses Executive Order Authority To Respond To Malicious Russian Cyber Activity

President Amends EO 13964 from April 2015 in Answer to Attacks on U.S. Electoral System

Norma Krayem is a senior policy advisor, Ronald A. Oleynik is a partner and Tristan Atwood is an Associate in our Washington, D.C., office.

HIGHLIGHTS:

President Barack Obama used the Cybersecurity Executive Order (EO) 13964 for the first time ever and amended it to include the U.S. electoral system as part of critical infrastructure. The EO was issued in response to intelligence community findings that the Russian government engaged in malicious cyber activity with respect to the U.S. electoral system. Under the new provisions, the President sanctioned nine Russian entities and individuals: two Russian intelligence services, four individual officers of the intelligence services and three Russian companies that provided "material support." U.S. companies and persons doing business in Russia will need to carefully review the underlying parameters of the original and amended EO to ensure that any business with the sanctioned entities and individuals ceases. President Barack Obama amended Executive Order (EO) 13964 on December 29, 2016, in response to intelligence community findings that the Russian government engaged in malicious cyber activity with respect to the U.S. electoral system. The original EO, which was issued in April 2015, focused on 16 critical infrastructure sectors but did not cover the electoral system. Under the new provisions, the President sanctioned nine Russian entities and individuals: two Russian intelligence services, four individual officers of the intelligence services and three Russian companies that provided "material support."

The White House announced that the sanctions were also in response to the Russian government's "aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election in 2016," which were intended to "erode faith in U.S. democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the U.S. government." The entities and individuals sanctioned include:

The GRU and the FSB: The GRU, Russia's foreign military intelligence service, was designated for its involvement in the tampering, altering or causing a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with the 2016 U.S. election process. Similarly, the FSB, Russia's primary security agency, was designated for assisting in the GRU's interference with...