Military Cyber Teams On Standby For Elections
“The Homeland Security and Defense Departments don’t expect a significant cyber attack on next week’s elections. But both agencies are eager to avoid a repeat of 2016, so just in case, military Cyber Protection Teams are on standby and able to respond ‘within hours,’ a senior Pentagon official told reporters. ‘Back in the spring, we were challenged with, are we doing enough, and should we be doing more?’ said the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, referring to high-profile hearings and media coverage questioning the Trump Administration’s lack of preparations. ‘That’s why we’ve stepped in to partner with DHS. So we asked them where they had gaps.’ ‘We haven’t deployed anyone, just to be clear,’ Wilson said. ‘We’ll have a traditional prepare-to-deploy order, (and) the members and teams are on recall ready to go within hours.’ ‘If called upon, we would operate under DHS authorities,’”