“There is a very strong belief that the US — through cyber methods — has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail,” former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind told the BBC earlier this year.

Rifkind’s comments came on the heels of a report in the New York Times saying US President Donald Trump inherited a cyberwar on North Korea meant to sabotage its missile tests.

“It’s clear United States policy to develop the cyber capability to disable enemy ballistic missiles,” said Greg Austin, a professor at the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales.