The Trump administration is denying that it is planning to halt cyber operations against Russia.
The denials by the Defense Department (DoD) and CISA come in the wake of multiple reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had told U.S. Cyber Command to pause offensive operations against and investigations into Russia and that CISA was given similar instructions.
News organizations ranging from The Guardian and The Record to the New York Times and Washington Post, citing multiple unnamed sources, wrote about the commands from the Trump administration, which, since returning to office in January, has pursued a tighter relationship with Russia. For decades, Russia has been the United States’ top foreign adversary.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), CISA, the government’s top cybersecurity agency created during Trump’s first administration, wrote that its “mission is to defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia. There has been no change in our posture. Any reporting to the contrary is fake and undermines our national security.”
Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees CISA, has told news outlets that “there has been no change in our posture or priority on this front.”
Meanwhile, an unnamed senior defense official told Bloomberg that Hegseth "neither canceled nor delayed any cyber operations directed against malicious Russian targets.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Strong Reaction to Reported Directives
The reports of pauses in cyber operations against Russia drew sharp rebukes from Democratic leaders and many in the cybersecurity community, which said the United States was opening the door to Russia to launch cyberattacks against the country.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused the Trump administration of giving “a free pass as Russia continues to launch cyber operations and ransomware attacks against critical American infrastructure.”
There also were international reactions to the news reports. French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told a French radio station that he had “a bit of trouble understanding [Hegseth's decision],” adding that European Union countries "are constantly the targets" of Russian cyberattacks, according to Politico.
Downstream Worries for MSSPs
Some cybersecurity pros said such a move would directly affect the ability of the government and commercial vendors to collect intelligence regarding cyber operations by threat groups sponsored by Russia’s intelligence agencies or based in Russia, and that the lack of such intelligence could have a negative cascading effect on MSSPs and MSPs.
Changing Sides
The reports of the pauses in cyber operations against Russia came amid escalating tensions regarding Russia’s war against neighboring Ukraine. That includes the high-profile and heated White House meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump and Vice President JD Vance late last month.
This week, the president ordered a pause on all U.S. military aid to Ukraine following the meeting. The freeze will remain in place until Trump decides that Zelensky and other Ukrainian leaders are making a genuine commitment to reaching a peace deal and ending the war with Russia.
Trump’s embrace of Russia and antagonistic approach to Ukraine is in sharp contrast to the stance taken by the Biden administration, which worked with EU allies to send billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine.
