"The use of surrogates for cyber operations adds a degree of unpredictability to conflict in the cyber domain," the report stated. "Russian cyber capabilities are, in particular, reputed to be linked to a loose group of cyber mercenaries and patriotic ‘hacktivists’."
As a result, Russia’s ability to control the actions of its hackers could prove limited, given the prospect that mercenaries and activists could carry out attacks on their own initiative, and perhaps for their own reasons, the report explained.
The report — issued days before a highly anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a two-day G-20 summit this week in Germany — focused the potential for a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia, which the report concluded remain minimal but nevertheless susceptible to escalation.
"Clearly, if cyberattacks — purposefully or inadvertently — affect the systems on which strategic nuclear forces rely, or are perceived to have this effect, they can become highly escalatory during a nuclear crisis if a national command authority is led to believe that its second strike capability has been or might soon be compromised," the report warned.
The report recommended that the United States clearly state its views on the kinds of cyberattacks against the United States, US allies or US forces that it would consider unacceptable and likely to draw a response.
