Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down on cyber- and information-operations planning against Russia, according to a U.S. official and a second person familiar with the order.
The move appears to be intended to appease Russia and draw it to the negotiating table in talks with Ukraine, according to the two. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly communicate their understanding of the directive. The order was first reported by The Record, the news unit of cyber threat intelligence firm Recorded Future.
U.S. Cyber Command manages the U.S. military’s offensive and defensive cyber operations. It’s led by Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads the National Security Agency. The order from Hegseth did not apply to the NSA and its signals-intelligence work tracking Russian activities, The Record reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The extent of the order is not entirely clear. The halt of information operations means U.S. cyber warriors are essentially curbed from gathering information that can be used to influence, disrupt, or sabotage Russian decisionmaking in the digital domain, including disinformation and influence narratives.
It’s not clear exactly when Hegseth’s directive was issued on Friday, but it likely occurred before an intense Oval Office meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump that ended in disarray. one of the people said.
On Sunday, the Kremlin said that the recent shift in U.S. foreign policy largely reflects its own perspective, characterizing Donald Trump as a leader with “common sense.”
“The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Sunday. “This largely coincides with our vision.”
Russia, especially since its 2014 invasion of Ukraine, has carried out mass hacking and influence operations against the United States. It particularly focused its efforts in the runup to the 2024 election last year, when intelligence officials said that Moscow had launched influence campaigns to sway Americans’ votes in favor of Trump.
“Due to operational security concerns, we do not comment nor discuss cyber intelligence, plans, or operations. There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the warfighter in all operations, to include the cyber domain,” Cyber Command said in statements to the media.
The command had been collaborating with Ukrainian cyberspace counterparts on information sharing, including exchanging indicators of compromise, which are forensic artifacts like malware signatures associated with malicious cyber activity.
The decision has sounded alarms in Congress. Washington state Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Hegseth “owes the committee a detailed explanation.”
“I have asked for more information to be provided immediately, including: if an order was given, and if so, when and to whom; the scope of the order; expected impacts to partners, allies, and domestic agencies; and whether any risk assessment was made in advance of the order or is currently underway as a result of the order,” Smith said.
“Donald Trump is so desperate to earn the affection of a thug like Vladimir Putin he appears to be giving him a free pass as Russia continues to launch cyber operations and ransomware attacks against critical American infrastructure, threatening our economic and national security,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a post on X. “The best defense is always a strong offense, and that’s true for cybersecurity too.”
