NSA head vows to strike back at nations meddling with U.S. vote – San Antonio Express-News

One of America's top spy chiefs vowed that the U.S. will hit back at foreign nations attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, a warning delivered days after fresh charges of Russian hacking against the West.

"We're going to act when we see adversaries attempting to interfere in our elections," General Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command, said Monday during an event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

Nakasone's comments come after reports of Russian hacking once again surfaced last week, with the U.K., U.S. and Canada accusing Russia of attempting to steal international research to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Britain also accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the country's general election last year, by disseminating documents relating to trade talks with the U.S. Russia rejected the charges.

In a sign of the rising concern about election-year threats, top congressional Democrats said Monday that they want FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide all House and Senate members a classified and "defensive counter-intelligence briefing" before August regarding foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

In a letter to Wray, lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees said that "we are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November."

Aides to the lawmakers declined Monday to provide specifics on the threats mentioned in the letter.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday condemned President Donald Trump's "failure to act" and said in a statement that he was putting "the Kremlin and other foreign governments on notice."

"This is a violation of our sovereignty," Biden said on MSNBC. "And if in fact it occurs there will be response in kind."

NSA efforts to secure the November election include broadening its interagency partnerships and studying the techniques of U.S. adversaries, Nakasone said in his speech.

"We're going to know our adversaries better than they know themselves," he said.

The 2018 U.S. midterm elections demonstrated the country's enhanced "agility" across government agencies, Nakasone said, adding that the NSA's capabilities were now "battle-tested."

The cyber chief also addressed the ongoing debate over 5G technology as countries across the world assess the role of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

"Part of the 5G conversation has been, do nations want to entrust the security of what will likely be the most important platform for their communications to nations that do not share their values?" he asked. "We're in an era of great-power competition. We see it every day in cyberspace."

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NSA head vows to strike back at nations meddling with U.S. vote - San Antonio Express-News