Summary: <p>On Wednesday, the House approved<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-us-aid-package-41cc2e66c7714b37eca9d2bb8add53aa"> a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill</a> that would fund the government through September, and includes nearly $14 billion in humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. The bill did not contain aid to continue battling the pandemic. Still, it is one of the largest spending packages in American history.</p> <p>One part of the spending package is directed towards new cybersecurity protections for the United States, which the Senate passed last week. </p> <p>Although cyber attacks from Russia against Ukraine have been low-level so far in the conflict, there is rising concern that Russian-backed hackers could disrupt key infrastructure and resources in Ukraine such as electricity or fuel. Russia’s <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2022/02/ukraine-russia-cyberwar-sandworm-gru.html">first big cyberattack</a> against Ukraine happened in 2015, after Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea. It launched a blackout attack against Ukrainian electric companies using malware that resulted in blackouts for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/america-electric-grid-60-minutes-2022-02-27/">almost a quarter-million</a> Ukrainians.</p> <p>And some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/09/russian-hacking-threats-arent-over-congress-was-warned-last-night/">lawmakers are worried</a> about Russia turning its ire onto the U.S. Last May, a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/politics/us-russia-colonial-pipeline-hack-arrest/index.html">Russian hacker was responsible</a> for a ransomware attack against the Colonial Pipeline that lead to widespread gas shortages along the East Coast – though Russian authorities said they arrested the hacker in January.</p> <p>To learn more about the threat of cyber attacks, we talked with <a href="https://twitter.com/Joseph_Marks_">Joseph</a><a href="https://twitter.com/Joseph_Marks_"> Marks</a>, writer of the Cybersecurity 202 newsletter for the Washington Post.</p>
