Signed directive to deploy military intelligence and cyber capabilities to protect election infrastructure

Signed directive to deploy military intelligence and cyber capabilities to protect election infrastructure

Attention in Trump’s drive to ‘prevent election fraud’… Military polling stations are not deployed.

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Yu-mi = U.S. Secretary of Defense (War) Pete Hegseth ordered the military's intelligence and cyber capabilities to be mobilized to block election interference by foreign powers ahead of the midterm elections in November.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced on the 28th (local time) that Secretary Hegseth signed a directive to activate a comprehensive defense system encompassing all sectors of government to protect America's election infrastructure from foreign hostile forces.

Accordingly, the U.S. Cyber ​​Command and combat support organizations plan to first deploy cutting-edge intelligence and cyber capabilities to identify, block, and neutralize foreign interference in the U.S. democratic election process.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said "free and fair elections" are the foundation of the United States and that the department will work with federal, state and local governments to protect America's voting systems and uncover malign foreign influence efforts.

This measure can be seen as an extension of the election security activities carried out by the past administration in that it utilizes the U.S. military's cyber and intelligence capabilities to block election interference by foreign forces.

However, President Trump has continued to make unconfirmed election fraud claims since his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and the current 'Trump 2nd term' administration is emphasizing election reliability ahead of the midterm elections in November and is expanding the role of the federal government, which means that even the Department of Defense has strengthened related responses.

In particular, the Trump administration has recently become controversial by deploying federal personnel to detect election fraud, such as verifying state voter lists to check whether non-citizens voted illegally.

However, Minister Hegseth's order was focused on blocking intervention by foreign powers and did not include provisions such as deploying military forces to polling places.