Russia: Cyber war with US a possibility

President Trump has rejected reports of US agencies deploying malware in Russia's power grid

Russia has warned that a reported US digital infiltration into Russia's electric power grid could trigger a cyber war between the two countries.

The warning from President Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov followed a report in The New York Times, suggesting that US is readying for a future cyberwar against Moscow, and that a cyberwar between two countries was possible, in theory.

"Undoubtedly this information shows the hypothetical possibility... all signs of cyberwar and military cyber action against the Russian Federation," said Peskov.

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According to Tass, Peskov said that several strategic areas of the Russian economy had endured cyber attacks from adversaries in the past and added that government agencies were constantly working to combat such attacks.

Peskov added that President Putin has sought, on multiple occasions, to initiate cooperation between various countries to prevent cyber crime.

"Unfortunately, our American partners never responded to our initiatives," Peskov noted.

Last week, The Times reported that US Cyber Command was more aggressively deploying malware into Russia's grid and that those digital incursions don't even need approval from president Trump.

The report cited current and former unnamed US government officials and revealed that the primary purpose of planting malware into Russian power systems was to enable the US to conduct cyber attacks in case should a major conflict with Russia break out at any time in future.

The publication added that Trump gave the Cyber Command more powers last year to carry out offensive digital operations against the US adversaries, although the newspaper accepted that it did not have classified data to confirm whether Cyber Command has the power to shut down Russia's power system.

Mr Trump — who The New York Times claimed had not been briefed on the secret cyber operations — rejected the report on Sunday, describing it in a tweet as "a virtual act of treason".

Trump added that the newspaper was "desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our country."

The US government has never publically disclosed details of past cyber actions taken against its adversaries. But last week national security adviser John Bolton said that US had started taking more aggressive steps in cyberspace against countries that were engaged in cyber operations against the US.

General Paul M. Nakasone, chief of US Cyber Command, also said recently that the US needed to have "defend forward" capabilities to foil cyberattack against critical US systems.

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