WASHINGTON DC – Cyber Command, the US military’s hacking unit, has taken offensive action to disrupt cybercriminal groups that have launched ransomware attacks on US companies, a spokesperson for the command confirmed to CNN Sunday.
The spokesperson declined to specify what actions the command had taken. But it’s one of the first, unequivocal acknowledgements from Cyber Command since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May that the command has targeted criminal gangs that hold the computer systems of US businesses hostage.
New comments by Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, which the New York Times reported earlier Sunday, signal that the US military’s computer operatives have been increasingly willing to hack criminals, and not just state actors, who pose a threat to US critical infrastructure.
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