By: Justin Lynch and Joe Gould
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WASHINGTON — America’s top uniformed armed forces officeholder is offering to assist secure the nation’s election systems, according to a fundamental lawmaker. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said July eighteen via Twitter that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford told him “the Department of Defense tin dismiss assist states inward securing their election systems.” "I don’t desire to expose what they are doing,” Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill the next day. “My betoken is a whole-of-government approach would include [the Department of Defense] — which is a flake surprising to me.” The remarks came every bit Congress is poised to create upward one's hear on legislative linguistic communication that would authorize the military’s cyber arm, USA Cyber Command, to disrupt, defeat together with deter Russia’s systematic together with ongoing cyberattacks. The Senate passed the provision every bit component of its version of the annual defense forcefulness policy bill, but it does non look inward the House version.
A Pentagon spokesman said the subdivision tin dismiss already back upward news collection, armed forces operations together with offering civil back upward to defend the USA election system.
The subdivision is “capable of supporting local, nation or federal departments or agencies inward answer to a asking for assistance,” every bit long every bit it is "legally available” together with approved past times the president or defense forcefulness official, said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a spokesman for the department.
Repeated attempts to achieve Dunford were non successful.
At to the lowest degree 21 nation election systems In the 2016 presidential election were targeted past times hackers. There is no evidence that the vote count inward those states was manipulated.
The news community has warned that the midterm elections are “a potential target for Russian influence operations.”
The Department of Homeland Security is the Pb federal means inward accuse of election security. And experts are leery at the proffer the Defense Department could assist defend nation election systems.
“There are rattling goodness legal restrictions on why nosotros never desire the armed forces involved inward elections. Helping to secure voting machines puts the armed forces far besides around the election process,” said Todd Rosenblum, an assistant secretarial assistant of defense forcefulness inward the Obama administration. “Possibly the National Guard could footstep in, but nosotros don’t desire people inward uniform helping elections.”
The possibility of the armed forces helping to secure nation elections was explored previously during a Feb thirteen Senate subcommittee hearing.
“I exercise non believe the Department of Defense has a leading piece of job to play inward the cyber protection of USA elections,” Heather Conley, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic together with International Studies, told lawmakers inward February.
“This is the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, which has struggled to prepare effective policies to protect critical election infrastructure every bit distrust betwixt the federal regime together with nation every bit good every bit local election officials has grown,” she said.
However, the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity’s ranking member, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., offered back upward at the hearing for the military’s assuming a role.
The Department of Defense “should ensure that its active together with reserve gene cyber units are prepared to assist the Department of Homeland Security together with the governors to defend our election infrastructure,” Nelson said.
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