President Donald Trump signed an order to repeal the directive that regulates Washington’s right to apply cyberattacks, as well as the order and rules of their conduct, adopted under his predecessor Barack Obama, the Wall Street Journal reported with reference to informed sources.
Obama signed the document in 2012 to replace a similar directive of the previous President George W. Bush. This set of rules was considered secret, but its content in 2013 fell into open access thanks to the former employee of the US special services Edward Snowden.
WSJ sources did not comment on Trump’s version of document, citing its secrecy. At the same time, one official in the presidential administration described the change as a “step forward” designed to support US military operations, as well as help in combating the theft of intellectual property and foreign interference in elections.
Opponents of the Obama directive considered it to be excessively strict, and claimed it was impossible to carry out certain cyber operations because of the need to receive the approval of too many different departments.
One former high-ranking official responsible for cybersecurity, told the WSJ that expert community largely believes that Trump can create a new military body that will deal solely with cyberwar issues.
