{"id":37914,"date":"2025-03-04T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2025\/03\/04\/hegseth-halts-us-offensive-cyberoperations-against-russia\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:17:33","slug":"hegseth-halts-us-offensive-cyberoperations-against-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/cyber\/2025\/03\/04\/hegseth-halts-us-offensive-cyberoperations-against-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth halts US offensive cyberoperations against Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2025\/03\/03\/hegseth-returns-army-base-to-fort-benning-in-second-naming-reversal\/\" target=\"_blank\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> has paused offensive cyberoperations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command, rolling back some efforts to contend with a key adversary even as national security experts call for the U.S. to expand those capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, on Monday confirmed the pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hegseth\u2019s decision does not affect cyberoperations conducted by other agencies, including the CIA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. But the Trump administration also has rolled back other efforts at the FBI and other agencies related to countering <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-election-security-fbi-cisa-foreign-interference-98f1e17c8a6d5923db945a27f06458e7\" target=\"_blank\">digital and cyber threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon decision, which was first reported by The Record, comes as many national security and cybersecurity experts have urged greater investments in cyber defense and offense, particularly as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/china\/\" target=\"_blank\">China<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2024\/07\/09\/russian-hackers-infiltrate-veterans-affairs-via-microsoft-account\/\" target=\"_blank\">Russia<\/a> have sought to interfere with the nation\u2019s economy, elections and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/china-fbi-trump-vance-hack-cellphones-d085787db764d46922a944b50e239e4a\">security.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republican lawmakers and national security experts have all called for a greater offensive posture. During his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/01\/25\/hegseth-confirmed-as-next-defense-secretary-by-narrow-senate-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\">Senate confirmation hearing<\/a> this year, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said America\u2019s rivals have shown that they believe cyberespionage \u2014 retrieving sensitive information and disrupting American business and infrastructure \u2014 to be an essential weapon of the modern arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want us to have all of the tools necessary to go on offense against our adversaries in the cyber community,\u201d Ratcliffe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cyber Command oversees and coordinates the Pentagon\u2019s cybersecurity work and is known as America\u2019s first line of defense in cyberspace. It also plans offensive cyberoperations for potential use against adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hegseth\u2019s directive arrived before Friday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/02\/28\/trump-berates-ukrainian-president-says-hes-not-ready-for-peace\/\" target=\"_blank\">dustup<\/a> between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. It wasn\u2019t clear if the pause was tied to any negotiating tactic by the Trump administration to push Moscow into a peace deal with Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/03\/03\/trump-speech-to-congress-expected-to-key-on-ukraine-national-security\/\" target=\"_blank\">vowed to end the war<\/a> that began when Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, and on Monday he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/02\/28\/trump-berates-ukrainian-president-says-hes-not-ready-for-peace\/\" target=\"_blank\">slammed Zelenskyy<\/a> for suggesting the end to the conflict was \u201cfar away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Hegseth&#8217;s order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cyber warfare is cheaper than traditional military force, can be carried out covertly and doesn\u2019t carry the same risk of escalation or retaliation, making it an increasingly popular tool for nations that want to contend with the U.S. but lack the traditional economic or military might, according to Snehal Antani, CEO of Horizon3.ai, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm founded by former national security officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cyberespionage can allow adversaries to steal competitive secrets from American companies, obtain sensitive intelligence or <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sabotage-russia-germany-putin-ukraine-058ee53d79af97bc9a499ccc10a5e35a\" target=\"_blank\">disrupt supply chains or the systems<\/a> that manage dams, water plants, traffic systems, private companies, governments and hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The internet has created new battlefields, too, as nations like Russia and China use <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/france-election-disinformation-russia-olympics-be18d688677240686df200096018f221\" target=\"_blank\">disinformation<\/a> and propaganda to undermine their opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artificial intelligence now makes it easier and cheaper than ever for anyone \u2014 be it a foreign nation like Russia, China or North Korea or <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/microsoft-russia-china-iran-israel-cyberespionage-cyber-d3a22dd2dcea32615ac15ed4fb951541\" target=\"_blank\">criminal networks<\/a> \u2014 to step up their cybergame at scale, Antani said. Fixing code, translating disinformation or identifying network vulnerabilities once required a human \u2014 now AI can do much of it faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are entering this era of cyber-enabled economic warfare that is at the nation-state level,\u201d Antani said. \u201cWe\u2019re in this really challenging era where offense is significantly better than defense, and it\u2019s going to take a while for defense to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi also has <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-election-security-fbi-cisa-foreign-interference-98f1e17c8a6d5923db945a27f06458e7\" target=\"_blank\">disbanded an FBI task force<\/a> focused on foreign influence campaigns, like those Russia used to target U.S. elections in the past. And more than a dozen people who <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/election-security-cisa-kristi-noem-cybersecurity-5bac8ce416c46b4fbe44c94ae5874b39\" target=\"_blank\">worked on election security<\/a> at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were put on leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These actions are leaving the U.S. vulnerable despite years of evidence that Russia is committed to continuing and expanding its cyber efforts, according to Liana Keesing, campaigns manager for technology reform at Issue One, a nonprofit that has studied technology\u2019s impact on democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cInstead of confronting this threat, the Trump administration has actively taken steps to make it easier for the Kremlin to interfere in our electoral processes,\u201d Keesing said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The suspension comes as many national security experts warn of a greater threat posed by Russia, China and other adversaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":119785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3627],"class_list":["post-37914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"M4ZDI6RTIQZHM4DGMY2U6WRTME","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2025\/03\/04\/hegseth-halts-us-offensive-cyberoperations-against-russia\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hegseth halts US offensive cyberoperations against Russia - C4ISRNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The suspension comes as many national security experts warn of a greater threat posed by Russia, China and other adversaries.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hegseth halts US offensive cyberoperations against Russia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The suspension comes as many national security experts warn of a greater threat posed by Russia, China and other adversaries.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/cyber\/2025\/03\/04\/hegseth-halts-us-offensive-cyberoperations-against-russia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"C4ISRNet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T01:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T01:17:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lolita C. 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