The U.S. military’s cyber command today (Monday) confirmed for the first time that it is working against criminal gangs that carry out infidelity attacks against American companies, but did not provide details on how the operations are carried out and who the targets were.
General Paul Naxona, commander of the cyber command and director of the National Security Agency, said that until the infidelity attacks that paralyzed Colonial Pipeline’s strategic oil pipeline last May and against the world’s largest meat supplier JBS, treatment was in the realm of law enforcement.
But the two strategic attacks changed thinking and the US administration decided to take a more aggressive and coordinated approach. Following this, the Cyber Command, the National Security Agency and other agencies began to invest resources in gathering intelligence on the heretical gangs and sharing information with other bodies in government and foreign agencies.
According to Nexona, the action against the gangs was intended to “charge them a price,” although he did not specify what actions were taken and against whom. “Together with a number of elements in our administration, we have carried out actions that have taken a toll,” he said. “This is an important ability that we must always be aware of.”
Reports from the American media show that last September, the cyber command diverted traffic around the servers used by the REvil ransom group operating from Russia, after hackers working for another government broke into the servers and made it difficult for criminals to collect the ransom. As a result, the gang ceased operations, at least temporarily.
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