‘CIA used new powers to carry out offensive hacks since 2018’

The American intelligence service CIA was given much broader powers in 2018 and could therefore more easily determine which organizations it would hack and how. Several offensive operations have also been carried out since then.

The Central Intelligence Agency was given powers from US President Donald Trump two years ago, Yahoo reports. With the powers, the agency was given “specific authority to take offensive actions against other countries” such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, intelligence sources told the website.

The powers were intended not only to gather intelligence, but also to conduct offensive operations. For example, those operations disrupted power grids or could frustrate an intelligence campaign, and the CIA could dump sensitive information about opponents online. The campaigns could also cause damage, as happened in the 2009 Stuxnet attack on facilities of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The powers gave the CIA the ability to sabotage critical infrastructure.

The CIA has used the powers several times, according to Yahoo. That happened at least a dozen times. The exact attacks have not been disclosed, but they would involve both sabotage and information leakage.

The first proposals for the new powers were already conceived in 2016 under President Obama. This happened as a counteraction to Russian interference in the American elections. However, the plans did not materialize at the time. Under President Trump, plans were later expanded, for actions against not only Russia but other countries as well.