The White House passed the Kremlin names of Russian hackers who attacked US agencies, testing if Putin will arrest them, report says

• Russian hackers have breached US businesses and government agencies in the past 18 months.
• After Biden warned Putin over the attacks, the Russian president said he would take action.

The White House recently handed the Kremlin a list of Russian hackers who targeted US entities, testing whether President Vladimir Putin will arrest them, The New York Times reported.

In the past 18 months, a number of US government departments and thousands of US businesses have been hit by major data breaches that have been traced back to Russia-based groups.

The Kremlin has long denied Russian government involvement, and Putin told Biden in July that Russia would take steps to crack down on hackers targeting the US.

The US is now hoping Putin will make good on his promise.

In recent weeks, Anne Neuberger, the White House's top advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, held a series of online meetings with her cyber counterpart in the Kremlin, The Times reported.

During one meeting held several weeks ago, the US delegation gave the Kremlin a list of hackers it believed to be targeting America, The Times said.

The Times did not say which names were on the list. The White House did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Now, US officials are waiting to see if the Kremlin moves to arrest the hackers, a US official told The Times, which will indicate whether Putin is serious about stopping attacks on US entities from Russia.

There have been a flurry of damaging hacking attempts in the past 12 months:

• In July, the Russia-linked hacking group REvil said it had carried out an attack on the IT management software provider Kaseya, leaving more than 1,000 US businesses breached.
• In June, the meat supplier JBS paid out an $11 million ransomware payment to REvil.
• In December 2020, it was revealed that Russian hackers with the Nobelium group breached the software company SolarWinds, allowing them to access data from the US Treasury, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Commerce, and Department of Energy.
• Last week, Microsoft said that Nobelium has hit at least 14 more technology firms since May.

In April, the White House accused the Russian spy agency SVR of being behind the SolarWinds hack.

The US then expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions on 32 Russian entities and individuals connected to hacking and disinformation networks.