In-brief: In the hours before the Petya malware began circulating, two high level Trump Administration officials called for a tougher stand against online actors who sow chaos. The question now is how the Administration will react.

TEL-AVIV, Israel– With the Petya “wiper” virus spreading globally, leaving crippled computers and organizational chaos in its wake, eyes are turning to the six month-old administration of President Donald Trump for clues about how the U.S and its allies will respond to one of the most destructive malware attacks to date.

In official statements, at least, the Administration takes a hard stand on ransomware, wipers and other forms of cyber crime and online adventurism. But experts say that retaliating against a nation-state like Russia will not be easy, even if attribution for the Petya attack can be tied to them.

The case for a muscular Trump Administration response to Petya is strong, at least judging the words of its chief cyber security experts. Speaking at a conference at Tel Aviv University on Monday, just hours before the Petya outbreak would begin in Ukraine, the Trump Administration’s two leading advisors on cyber security policy each took a tough stand on acts of cyber criminality and called for a policy that imposes tough sanctions on nations and other actors who refuse to abide by international norms in cyber space.

Asked about his top concern, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Rob Joyce seemed to anticipate the outbreak, identifying destructive malware attacks like the Shamoon attack on Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, ARAMCO. “Destructive malware like the Shamoon virus that just deletes data – that’s just beyond the pale,” Joyce told an audience at Tel Aviv University on Monday. Specifically, Joyce said he was worried that the world’s inaction in response to Shamoon reflected an unwillingness to take on bad actors in a forceful way. “The real issue is that we’re watching that happen in Saudi Arabia and we’re kind of letting that go. There has not been a huge international outcry about that behavior,” Joyce said.

The question, he said, is “what are the responsible actions we can take to make sure that …that is not going to come at us – our businesses, networks, governments.”

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