The US special forces have escalated cyber-attacks on the Russian electric power grid.

Axar.az reports citing the New York Times.

According to the newspaper’s sources among US officials, the US is attempting to implement programs that can gather information on the Russian power grid and, allegedly, placing crippling malware inside the system. "It has gotten far, far more aggressive over the past year," one of the sources cited by the New York Times claimed. "We are doing things at a scale that we never contemplated a few years ago."

"Since at least 2012… the United States has put reconnaissance probes into the control systems of the Russian electric grid," the article says. "But now the American strategy has shifted more toward offense." "It is intended partly as a warning, and partly to be poised to conduct cyberstrikes if a major conflict broke out between Washington and Moscow."

"The critical question impossible to know without access to the classified details of the operation is how deep into the Russian grid the United States has bored. Only then will it be clear whether it would be possible to plunge Russia into darkness or cripple its military a question that may not be answerable until the code is activated," the article states, adding that this action by the US "also carries significant risk of escalating the daily digital Cold War between Washington and Moscow."