U.S. President Barack Obama has been granted sweeping powers to order preemptive cyber-strikes on any given country, anonymous officials involved in a “secret legal review” of U.S. cyber warfare rules, told the New York Times Monday.

Speaking to the Times, the unnamed officials said quickly advancing tactics of cyber-warfare can be unleashed exclusively via the direct orders of the President—should the administration suspect signs of a major digital attack. If the president approves a strike, the government will be able to “attack adversaries by injecting them with destructive code—even if there is no declared war,” the Times reports.

The administration has been working to hash out the nation’s first written rules on how and when the military and several government agencies can initiate acts of cyber-warfare; however, the rules will remain classified.

“What we know about the legal questions Obama has grappled with is all secret. The development of ‘cyber-security’ policy or cyber warfare policies indicate a further expansion of the body of secret law under Obama,” Kevin Gosztola writes at FireDogLake.

Read the full story here.