United States: presidential security, “number one objective” of American intelligence

Security for the November presidential poll is the NSA's " number one goal ", intelligence agency director Gen. Paul Nakasone said on Monday, warning the United States was ready to " act " in response. to any cyberattack on elections. " The number one goal of the National Security Agency and Cyber ​​Command is a safe, secure and legitimate 2020 poll, " said General Nakasone, who heads both the military intelligence agency and the military command American for cyberspace.

Read also: US Presidential: the strange campaign in the basement of Joe Biden

To achieve this " we are going to obtain information on our adversaries, " he added during an online conference organized by the US Army. " We are going to know them better than they know themselves ". And above all, " we are going to act, " he continued. " We will act when we see our adversaries attempting to interfere in our elections ."

The "forward defense"

The boss of the NSA did not specify what kind of measures the United States could take, citing defense secrecy, but he recalled the concept on which Cyber ​​Command bases its strategy: " defense forward ", that is, the neutralization of threats before they reach American territory. To ensure the security of the elections, the military also wants to cooperate with several large universities that conduct research on influence campaigns on social networks, he added.

The US military revealed earlier this year that it had successfully hacked into the Islamic State group in 2016 to disrupt their recruitment campaign. The American intelligence services accuse Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election that brought Donald Trump to power, which the American president denies.