The Department of Defense is denying reports Secretary Pete Hegseth halted offensive cyber operations against Russia.
“TO BE CLEAR: @SecDef has neither canceled nor delayed any cyber operations directed against malicious Russian targets and there has been no stand-down order whatsoever from that priority,” the Pentagon’s rapid response team posted Tuesday on the social platform X.
The statement follows multiple media reports that Hegseth ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to pause offensive operations last week. The reports came amid an apparent broader shift in relations between the United States and Russia under the Trump administration.
The Pentagon previously declined to comment on the matter, citing “operational security concerns,” when reached by The Hill on Monday.
“There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the Warfighter in all operations to include the cyber domain,” the official added.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a civilian cyber defense agency that is separate from Cyber Command, emphasized Sunday that there “has been no change in our posture.”
“CISA’s mission is to defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia,” the agency wrote on X. “There has been no change in our posture. Any reporting to the contrary is fake and undermines our national security.”
The reports stirred skeptics from both sides of the aisle prior to the Pentagon’s latest statement.
“I don’t know why he’s doing that,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said in an interview on Fox Business. “But the Russians are attacking us every single day. The Chinese are attacking us every single day. I don’t think you signal to the Russians that ‘Hey, we’re gonna unilaterally withdraw from this space.’”
“If they can keep attacking us — and they do every single day — they should be fearful of our capacity to inflict damage on them,” he continued. “So I really don’t understand where that’s coming from.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the reported moves a “critical strategic mistake” on Sunday.
