U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services’ subcommittee on cybersecurity, today urged Secretary of Defense James Mattis to “prepare to engage Russian cyber operators” attempting to influence the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.
“Russia’s influence activities continue in the United States and elsewhere,” Nelson wrote in a letter to Mattis. “U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force, should be ordered to prepare to engage Russian cyber operators and disrupt their activities as they conduct clandestine influence operations against our forthcoming elections.”
Nelson also urged the secretary to implement the recommendations of a Defense Department task force on cyber deterrence, which offered the Pentagon several suggestions on how to the U.S. could deter further Russian cyberattacks. The task force recommendations were presented to the Pentagon last February but have not yet been implemented.
In addition to the Nelson, the letter was signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
Text of the lawmakers’ can be found here.
