US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered US Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, the New York Times reported, citing current and two former officials familiar with the matter.
The move is part of US efforts to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit at the negotiating table on Ukraine and start new relations between the two countries.
However, maintaining access to key Russian networks for espionage purposes is crucial to understanding Putin's intentions. Former officials explained that it is common practice to order a halt to military operations during sensitive diplomatic negotiations, but for Trump and Hegseth, backing off from offensive cyber operations against Russian targets poses a huge risk. The move is also expected to prompt the Russian president to retaliate.
American officials have said that Moscow has not stopped trying to penetrate U.S. networks, including in the early weeks of Trump’s administration. The past year has seen a surge in ransomware attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, many of them originating from Russia.
According to reports from U.S. intelligence agencies during the Biden administration, Russia waged an aggressive influence campaign during the last presidential campaign, and U.S. Cyber Command has conducted operations to disrupt or limit those influence efforts.
But the Trump administration has already begun to dismantle efforts by the FBI and other agencies to warn about Russian propaganda, and the Pentagon order will halt, at least for now, any further efforts by Cyber Command to disrupt future Russian influence campaigns.
The order from Pete Hegseth was first reported by The Record, a cybersecurity publication from Recorded Future that tracks cyber operations. The Pentagon and U.S. Cyber Command declined to comment, but a senior defense official said Hegsett had "no higher priority" than the safety of service members, including in cyber operations.
Following the revelations, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said Donald Trump appeared to be giving Vladimir Putin "a free pass while Russia continues to launch cyber operations and ransomware attacks against critical American infrastructure." He called the administration's move a "critical strategic mistake."