American General confirms US military hackers have conducted ‘a series of operations’ in support of Ukraine, as it battles Russia’s invasion
Ukraine continues to receive the full support from many nations including the United States and the United Kingdom, as it battles against Russia’s illegal invasion of its country.
Just days after the US confirmed it will provide a new longer range missile system to Ukraine, a senior US General has confirmed that it has carried out offensive cyber operations to support Ukraine.
But now the United States have confirmed that it is now involved in cyber operations.
Speaking to Sky News, the head of US Cyber Command, General Paul Nakasone, said that US military hackers have conducted offensive operations in support of Ukraine.
Speaking in Tallinn, Estonia, the general, who is also director of the National Security Agency (NSA), told Sky News that separate “hunt forward” operations were allowing the United States to search out foreign hackers and identify their tools before they were used against America.
The four star General said he is concerned “every single day” about the risk of a Russian cyber attack targeting the US, and said that the hunt forward activities were an effective way of protecting both America as well as allies.
Then he confirmed US offensive cyber operations have been carried out.
“We’ve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, [and] information operations,” General Nakasone told Sky News.
General Paul Nakasone
The General did not detail exactly what activities had taken place, but he explained how they were lawful, conducted with complete civilian oversight of the military and through policy decided at the Department of Defence.
“My job is to provide a series of options to the secretary of defence and the president, and so that’s what I do,” he reportedly said.
The General declined to describe those options.
The issue of lawful cyberattacks is one that has been in the news headlines recently.
General Nakasone disagreed with some commentators who suggested Russian cyber operations against Ukraine had been overblown, and he praised the Kyiv government and defenders for their resilience.
“If you asked the Ukrainians, they wouldn’t say it’s been overblown,” he reportedly said. “If you take a look at the destructive attacks and disruptive attacks that they’ve encountered – you wrote about it in terms of the attack on [satellite company] Viasat – this is something that has been ongoing,” he added.
“And we’ve seen this with regards to the attack on their satellite systems, wiper attacks that have been ongoing, disruptive attacks against their government processes,” said General Nakasone.
“This is kind of the piece that I think sometimes is missed by the public. It isn’t like they haven’t been very busy, they have been incredibly busy. And I think, you know, their resilience is perhaps the story that is most intriguing to all of us,” said General Nakasone.
Meanwhile White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, commenting General Paul Nakasone comments, reportedly said that any offensive cyber activity against Russia would not be a violation of US policy of avoiding direct military conflict with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
