Than the options we had taken then All options are on the table What we've done is that we've worked closely with our allies in Europe to make sure that we have a carefully designed set of sanctions that would have a significant impact on the Russian economy We have a shared goal in terms of respecting the sovereignty of Ukraine and in terms of standing up and ensuring that we have sanctions at the ready in case a Russian troop enters Ukraine U.S. department treasury secretary walleye yemo outlining the Biden administration's plan of action to sanction Russia the U.S. has put 8500 troops on alert for possible deployment This is Russia has as many as a 100,000 troops on the border near eastern Ukraine At the same time the Department of Homeland Security is issuing a warning that Russia could levy cyberattacks against the U.S. in retaliation warning that Russia could target critical infrastructure For more on all this I'm joined by general Keith Alexander the former commander of U.S. cyber command also the founder and co CEO of iron net general Alexander great to have your perspective on this Obviously cyberattacks from Russia the threat of them are nothing new What makes this time different Well I think right now president Putin is looking at his options of how do I take over eastern Ukraine It's clear that moving a 100,000 troops on the border is a significant statement by him that he's serious about this I think he's still weighing his options And I think what the president our president and Europe is trying to do is how do we keep him from going in Going into eastern Ukraine and doing what he did 8 years ago in Crimea I think that's what he's trying to do And I think he believes it's a good time to do it There's a lot of opportunity here And he's weighing the consequences Those increased sanctions and Europe and the United States coming together to do that versus him getting eastern Ukraine which he's always wanted So this has gone on for a while I think he's now putting a statement in It's a good opportunity from his perspective What's the cost What is the cost I think from my perspective the cost should be They've got NATO and the U.S. allied and Europe aligned on this I think we've got everybody leaning in it was a great move I think by the administration in Europe to start bringing in more oil from the Middle East into Europe I think that's a huge statement because that's a long time and during economic impact on Russia And it means that we can Europe can live without Russian oil and gas and here's how we're going to do it So I think that that's key What I worry about though as you mentioned this is that the attacks on Ukraine could just go in cyber like they did in 2017 And if you recall those not petya attacks impacted the world TEDx merch That destructive wiper virus caused a tremendous amount of problems for everyone We could see the same thing here and it could grow And my concern is this could get out of hand Cyber's an element of national power It's one element and as soon as it escalates we have a problem That's when I would be most concerned about from my former time What about when it comes to a possible cyberattack on the United States What would you be most concerned about there Is it an attack on critical infrastructure Is it attack on hospital records The power grid the supply chain Each one of those has different consequences from my perspective If you think about what are they going to hit There are devastating attacks that they could do against the energy the oil and gas sector Think Colonial Pipeline and a number of those Actions they could do against hospitals But if they do that against hospitals that has a different I think set with our people Going after energy and shutting down the pipelines the oil and gas What would that do to our will to engage That's the question You know what Russia is going to look at What can they do to impact the will of the American people And what can they do to impact the will of the European people in this conflict That will to fight that will to push back is something that we have to consider It could backfire They could think we're going to do this and it would backfire as it did in World War II So I think these are the things that we have to consider as you look at this Emily what it all comes back to is what Chris English talked about a few weeks ago and what they did in the solarium commission We have to now think about cyber as an element of national power How we're going to bring the public and private sector together to defend this nation and to work with our allies We've got to get that going What kind of cyber actions on the United States or Ukraine would lead the U.S. to retaliate And what kind of offensive cyber actions do you imagine the U.S. would take Well I think there's both covert and over operations and things that we do I'm sure they would consider all of those And really what the National Security Council would do is bring all that together They bring in general nakasone and the team and say what options do we have What can we do to respond What would we do diplomatically What we do do economically what can we do in cyber And what other actions can we and our allies take All of that comes up with a series of capabilities that the president and the principal committee would look at And taking all that together from my perspective you've hit some of the key things Critical infrastructure What do they do If you hit critical infrastructure and it causes significant damage to this country I believe it will not go without a response And what that response would be is where the president has a choice And the Secretary of Defense they get together to say what are we going to do And he should those the calculation has to go we don't want another war But we can't let people like president Putin just take over countries like they did Crimea And we are going to see multiple sites of this Emily We're seeing it in the Middle East and you're seeing it in Asia And this is a really tough time And I believe it's going to get worse All right We'll.