US General says American hackers conducted offensive operations to support Ukraine: Report

As the ravaging Russia-Ukraine war has reached its 99th day, the chief of the United States' Cyber Command, General Paul Nakasone, claimed that ‘offensive operation’ in support of war-torn Ukraine have been carried out by US military hackers. During an exclusive interview with Sky News, General Nakasone detailed how the separate "hunt forward" operations allowed the US to track down foreign hackers and discover their tools before they were employed against the US.  

General Nakasone, for the first time, declared that the US was undertaking offensive hacking activities in support of Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s aggressive invasion.

“We have conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, (and) information operations," he told Sky News. 

General Nakasone talks about hacking operation to support Ukraine in war with Russia

Even though the US general did not specify the actions, he highlighted how they were legal, carried out with full civilian control of the military and in accordance with US Department of Defense policy. While speaking in Tallinn, Estonia, General Nakasone, who is also the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) asserted that he has been concerned "every single day" about the threat of a Russian cyber assault on the US and that the 'hunt forward' actions were an efficient way of protecting both America and its allies. 

Declining to describe the options, the General said, “My job is to provide a series of options to the secretary of defence and the president, and so that's what I do", Sky News reported. However, he pointed out that, unlike Russia, which starts its media operations with falsehood, the US strives to strategically reveal the truth. 

This strategic revelation has been in the works since 2018, according to General Nakasone, and has influenced the Western response to Ukraine's incursion. He added that they had a chance to start talking about what the Russians were trying to accomplish in their midterm elections in particular.

“We saw it again in 2020, as we talked about what the Russians and Iranians were going to do, but this was on a smaller scale,” he stressed.  

In addition to this, General Nakasone clarified, “The ability for us to share that information, being able to ensure its accurate and it's timely and its actionable on a broader scale has been very, very powerful in this crisis", Sky News reported.  

Meanwhile, General Nakasone made these remarks at a time United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorised providing a $700 million drawdown in armaments and equipment to Ukraine to fight against the invading Russian troops.  

(Image: AP)