Biden warns 'real shooting war' will be sparked by severe cyber attack
In remarks made on Tuesday at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Biden spoke of the need to "make sure that we're positioning ourselves to stay ahead of security challenges that will stretch the IC [intelligence community] in new ways it has never been stretched before."
"We've seen how cyber threats, including ransomware attacks, increasingly are able to cause damage and disruption to the real world," he said.
"I can't guarantee this, and you're as informed as I am, but I think it's more likely … if we end up in a war, a real shooting war with a major power, it's going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach of great consequence.
Biden next mentioned Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, characterising him as "sitting on top of an economy that has nuclear weapons and oil wells and nothing else" and therefore "in real trouble, which makes him even more dangerous, in my view."
Chinese President Xi Jinping was his next topic, and was described as "deadly earnest about becoming the most powerful military force in the world, as well as the largest – the most prominent economy in the world by the mid-40s."
