The White House is examining various ways to punish Russian hackers

The Obama administration last year rolled out to great fanfare a new economic sanctions power to punish and deter foreign hackers who harm the United States’ economic or national security.

The threat to use it last year helped wring a pledge out of China’s president that his country would cease hacking U.S. companies’ secrets to benefit Chinese firms…

With the clock ticking, the White House is working on adapting the authority to punish the Russians, according to U.S. officials. President Obama last week pledged there would be a response to Moscow’s interference in the U.S. elections.

One clear way to use the order against the Russian suspects would be to declare the electoral systems part of the “critical infrastructure” of the United States. Or it could be amended to clearly apply to the new threat — interfering in elections.

Administration officials would also like to make it difficult for President-elect Donald Trump to roll back any action they take.