US investigates cyberattacks that disrupt power and internet in Russia

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday (23), US President Joe Biden has been given the option to launch various large-scale virtual attacks on the Russian nation, with the aim of disrupting or paralyzing its military operations. Ukrainian territory.

Information published by the NBC News portal and obtained through conversations with US government officials have proposed that the country will use cyber weapons on an unprecedented scale to stop the conflict in Europe.

According to a NBC News report, possible options that could be pursued include changes to Russia’s railroads to disrupt military supplies, a complete blackout of electricity in the country, and disruption of Russia’s Internet connectivity.

U.S. government officials who spoke to NBC News say the attacks would not be considered acts of war because they are focused more on disrupting Russian operations than destroying them.

US cyberattacks could generate similarly disproportionate Russian responses

And according to sources NBC News reports, the U.S. government is split on whether or not to use these cyberattacks, out of concern that Russia will respond at the same level — one of the informants opined that the U.S. could. To do, Russia can do it too.

On the U.S. government side, shortly after the NBC News report was published, Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the country’s National Security Council, issued a statement saying the reports did not reflect what was actually being discussed by the U.S. government. A desire to contain the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Source: NBC News