U.S. forces are taking an aggressive approach in cyberspace ahead of November’s presidential election, aiming to wipe out threats from foreign countries and other actors before they have a chance to disrupt voting or other critical, election-related systems. “Cyber Command needs to do more than prepare for a crisis in the future; it must compete with adversaries today,” Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Central Command, and senior adviser Michael Sulmeyer said in a piece published Tuesday in FILE – National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 29, 2019.“U.S. forces must compete with adversaries on a recurring basis, making it far more difficult for them to advance their goals over time,” the officials wrote, outlining the strategy for the public with the presidential election now less than three months away. “Additionally, cyber effects operations allow Cyber Command to disrupt and degrade the capabilities our adversaries use to conduct attacks.” Nakasone and Sulmeyer say the more proactive approach to protecting the upcoming U.S. election began, in part, in October 2019, after a team from Cyber Command traveled to Podgorica, Montenegro, to investigate attempts, possibly by Russia, to infiltrate that country’s networks. In the process, the Cyber Command team “saw an opportunity to improve American cyber defenses ahead of the 2020 election,” they said in the article. Nakasone and Sulmeyer also say they are building on efforts from 2018, when Cyber Command joined with the National Security Agency to form the Russia Small Group (RSG) to help protect the congressional mid-term elections, shoring up vulnerabilities within the U.S. election infrastructure, sounding alarms about Russian disinformation campaigns, and hunting for malware. “Thanks to these and other efforts, the United States disrupted a concerted effort to undermine the midterm elections,” they wrote. “Together with its partners, Cyber Command is doing all of this and more for the 2020 elections.” Managing riskCritics point out that the more aggressive approach to cyber defense carries risks. Namely, they worry that whether due to a miscalculation or an accident, a confrontation in cyberspace could escalate and lead to all-out war. But U.S. Cyber Command officials argue the risk is manageable and that the “hunt forward” strategy allows them to impose necessary costs on adversaries like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. “Inaction poses its own risks: that Chinese espionage, Russian intimidation, Iranian coercion, North Korean burglary, and terrorist propaganda will continue unabated,” Nakasone and … “US Cyber Forces Go Hunting for Election Trouble” →