The Pentagon announced, on Monday, that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum directing the military to protect the US midterm elections from foreign interference.
The department stated in a press release that US Cyber Command - the military unit concerned with cyber warfare - and combat support agencies will “deploy advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities” with the aim of “monitoring, disrupting, and neutralizing foreign interference in US democratic processes.”
The memo, which comes about five weeks before the midterm elections, directs leadership to work with the Department of Homeland Security to address foreign cyber threats targeting U.S. election infrastructure.
The activities described in the memo are largely actions undertaken by US intelligence agencies and the military to protect US elections from foreign threats prior to Donald Trump's return to the presidency in 2025. For example, weeks before the 2024 presidential election, Cyber Command hackers carried out a covert operation to disrupt Russian "trolls" who were spreading disinformation targeting US voters, CNN previously reported.
However, the second Trump administration disbanded or downsized several government centers — specifically those of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — that were charged with countering foreign influence operations. Trump also continued to dismiss or cast doubt on previous US intelligence assessments regarding Russian and Chinese efforts to influence the elections. These factors have raised widespread concern among US national security officials - current and former - that the second Trump administration does not prioritize protecting US elections from foreign interference.
Those concerns worsened in April, when General Joshua M. Rudd, the new head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told lawmakers that he did not know whether a specialized military and intelligence team dedicated to countering foreign threats targeting elections had been formed in preparation for the midterm elections.
Since the 2020 election, this team — known as the Election Security Group (ESG) — has formed a hub that allows National Security Agency (NSA) and Cyber Command officials to share intelligence and launch counterattacks targeting cyber provocateurs from Russia, Iran, and others who have sought to undermine the U.S. election. The formation of this group came in response to the multi-pronged Russian influence operation targeting the 2016 US elections, a period in which the intelligence and security services found themselves in a surprised and unprepared position.
It was not immediately clear whether that group would play any role in the new activity ordered by Hegseth.
Rood said in a statement Monday that Cyber Command and the NSA "regularly address the activities of malicious foreign actors in cyberspace, including those aimed at interfering in our democratic process."
“My concern is that [Rudd] testified last April that he wasn't sure whether or not there was an Election Security Group (ESG) under the command,” Andrew Schocka, who worked at Cyber Command during the 2020 election cycle, told CNN. “The work of this group requires months of planning and coordination, and much of its influence is achieved long before Election Day; "Significantly limits your ability to influence opponents before the midterm elections."
