New York Times reports US has placed malware inside Russia

17 Jun 2019

New York Times reports US has placed malware inside Russia

According to a recent report in the New York Times, the US is escalating its cyber attacks on Russia’s electric power grid and states that it has placed potentially crippling malware inside Russian systems.

The Times has reported that the placement of the malware deep within Russia’s grid is a first for the US, and is intended as a warning and also to put the US in a position to conduct cyber attacks should a significant conflict arise with Russia.

Experts are yet to explain why they thought it prudent to publicise such an event.

The Times reported that: “Two administration officials told the Times they believed President Donald Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the US computer code being implanted inside the Russian grid.”

And that there was: “broad hesitation” to tell Trump about the details of the operations against Russia, due to concern over how Trump would react.

Trump, in response, said on Twitter that the Times report was “not true,” calling the Times’ reporting a “virtual act of Treason” and the news media the “enemy of the people”.

Malware inside Russia

The New York Times responded to Trump’s tweets, highlighting that it said in the story they had spoken to national security officials who had no national security concerns about their producing the news report.

In 2017, Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador to the US, in a White House meeting.