There was "broad hesitation" within the U.S. government about telling President Donald Trump about hacking the Russian power grid, the New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday.

The newspaper didn't reveal the exact source of the information, but said "two administration officials" confirmed they believed Trump was not briefed "in any detail" about the government putting Trojans inside the Russian grid.

According to NYT, the reason for Pentagon and intelligence officials staying silent is that they were worried about Trump's reaction to the hacking, and his ability to keep a secret.

Trump once leaked a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister, as NYT reported in 2017. There is also a Wikipedia page for this specific leak which is under heavy discussion among some Wikipedia contributors.

The two sources of NYT also defended the government saying they can keep Trump in the dark because a recent law permitted them to do so.

The "John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019" treats cyberspace operations similarly to traditional military activities. So briefing the commander-in-chief about such actions was no longer necessary.

Trump responded to the story on Twitter calling it "not true" and said NYT is one of the "corrupted media." He also deemed publication of the story as "a virtual act of treason."

But NYT replied to the tweet defending the story, saying it was known to the government before publication and that Trump's national security advisor John Bolton and commander of U.S. Cyber Command Paul Nakasone had both raised no objections.

"Accusing the press of treason is dangerous," the newspaper's tweet said.

The Trump administration used to be cautious about hacking other countries. They usually do it to tap into communications instead of breaking them.

But with the new law, the U.S. army is becoming more aggressive than they used to be, the NYT reported.

The paper is not sure about details of the attacks, as its sources gave contradicting information. Some said the new actions were just warnings to the Russians. Some others said the U.S. had got the ability to shut down the power of some Russian cities.

Electricity is critical to modern society and army as it provides a stable power supply and data link.

But being cut off from electricity also becomes a serious problem as modern military people become more and more dependant on electronic devices.

Power plants use a lot of computer programs to manage their large scale productions. The programs, like all others, can be vulnerable to hacking.

Hacking the power grid is widely known to the public, as an April Fool's joke about the U.S. hacking the Iraqi grid with viruses planted in printers spread around the world after the first Gulf War.

The NYT story also noted the possibility of the U.S. and Russia having planted viruses in the management software of the power grids of each other.