Category Archives: Gen. Paul Nakasone

U.S. Cyber Command selects new top deputy for Gen. Nakasone

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Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command, has selected the organization’s chief of staff as his top deputy, a decision that coincides with an ongoing effort to fortify digital readiness before the next election. Rear Adm. Ross Myers, who began his role as the command’s chief of staff last May, was confirmed by the Senate last week and is now a Vice Admiral and a three-star Deputy Commander. Nakasone, who is both the commander of Cyber Command and the Director of the National Security Agency, promoted Myers on Memorial Day. Myers has previously served as director of plans and policy at Cyber Command. He also served in several roles for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including as assistant deputy director for Global Operations and executive assistant to vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also is a career naval aviator. The number two position has been open since earlier this year, […]

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U.S. Cyber Command has shifted its definition of success

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U.S. Cyber Command is shifting the way it measures success from solely military outcomes to how the command enables other government agencies to defend against foreign offensive cyber threats. Brig. Gen. Timothy Haugh, who is in charge of Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, said on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council that success is “not necessarily [about] the department’s outcome,” but is instead about “how can we enable our international partners [and] our domestic partners in industry to be able to defend those things that are critical to our nation’s success.” Haugh said Cyber Command is doing its job right if agencies are taking their own actions: State Department issuing démarches, Department of Homeland Security releasing alerts, and Treasury Department announcing sanctions “based off of information that is derived from our operations.” In the past, Haugh said he believes that these outcomes may not have been considered as wins. […]

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Cyber Command’s midterm election work included trips to Ukraine, Montenegro, and North Macedonia

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As part of its work to protect the 2018 U.S. midterm elections from foreign hackers and trolls, Cyber Command personnel visited Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Ukraine to collaborate on network defense with those allies and study cyberthreats, U.S. officials confirmed to CyberScoop. The trip to Europe demonstrates how the command, which has grown in stature and capability since its 2009 inception, supports and learns from allies facing threats from persistent hackers. “We sent defensive teams… to three different European countries,” Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of Cyber Command, told a House Armed Services subcommittee on Wednesday. Nakasone did not name the countries. But a Cyber Command spokesperson said two of those countries were the Balkan nations of Montenegro and North Macedonia, which until February was known as Macedonia. And a U.S. government official with knowledge of the matter said the third country was Ukraine – something corroborated by a public statement […]

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Trump administration touts “extensive, historic” actions to secure elections

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Numerous Trump administration officials spent Thursday expounding upon the efforts the government is taking to curb Russian-linked actors’ efforts to interfere with the 2018 midterm elections. National security adviser John Bolton, for example, issued a vigorous defense of President Donald Trump’s “extensive, historic” efforts to strengthen the security of U.S. elections while offering lawmakers classified briefings on these efforts. In a rebuttal to congressional Democrats, who have criticized Trump’s election-security efforts as insufficient, Bolton asserted that National Security Council meetings on the subject in July and May were evidence of “a level of dedication and action with respect to this threat that far exceeds that of previous administrations.” In a letter to five Democratic senators, Bolton said the Trump administration is taking “unprecedented action to punish Russia for its efforts to disrupt the political and electoral processes core to American democracy and the American way of life.” The Senate Democrats had written Bolton asking the White […]

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NSA chief confirms he set up task force to counter Russian hackers

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The head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command confirmed over the weekend that he has set up a task force to counter Russian cyberthreats to the United States. Describing Russia as a “near-peer threat” in cyberspace that has “great capabilities,”Gen. Paul Nakasone said the task force is “in line with what the intelligence community has really been doing since post-2016/2017.” Speaking at a conference in Aspen, Colo., Nakasone didn’t elaborate on the activities or composition of the so-called “Russia Small Group,” but he did allude to the challenges of responding proportionally to foreign cyber operations that do not amount to acts of war. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report in January 2017 that hackers linked with the Russian government meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by breaching multiple political organizations. “What we’ve seen our adversaries do over a period of years is the fact that they operate […]

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As the military’s cyber units change guard, a battle over control rages on

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During a time of rapid change for the U.S. military’s top cyberwarfare teams, the current version of the 2019 defense bill is challenging the president’s ability to exert his authority with regards to those units. The White House is protesting a series of measures in the newly Senate-approved 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that seek to legislate how and when President Donald Trump can direct generals to launch cyberattacks. That effort comes while the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines welcome new leaders to take charge of their respective cyber forces. Hanging in the balance is how the U.S. operates in cyberspace, which most developed countries now define the fifth domain of warfare, adding to land, air, sea and space. Amendments introduced in the NDAA would require the executive branch to develop and adhere to a cyberwarfare strategy document that draws lines around what types of malicious foreign activity should result in […]

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