The move appears to be intended as a mechanism 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.
Cyber Command is a combatant command tied to the Pentagon, tasked with managing offensive and defensive cyber operations. It’s run in a dual-hatted manner under 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.
Reports of the order dovetail with an intense Friday meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance that ended in disarray. It’s not clear exactly when Hegseth’s directive was issued, but it likely occurred before the meeting, one of the people said.
On Sunday, the Kremlin said that the recent shift in U.S. foreign policy largely reflects its own per ..
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