Cyber Operations Receive Upgrade

The Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) was upgraded to a subordinate unified command, marking an upgrade for the force and stressing the importance of defense, attack and intelligence cyber operations against hackers as well as adversarial nations. 

“This [CNMF] command is so special because they’ve always been on the cutting edge in terms of the operations we’ve conducted,” said U.S. Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command, in a ceremony on Monday. 

In its current configuration, the CNMF is composed of 39 joint cyber teams organized in six task forces with 2,000-plus uniformed and civilian personnel from the services, the Coast Guard, the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. It partners with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and other agencies, as well as industry, academic and international partners, according to a release. 

This new sub-unified command under Cyber Command is permanently tasked with a portion of the mission of its parent. 

“The elevation to sub-unified command is really about how we will work with the services to ensure we have the right talent in the right places,” said Maj. Gen. William J. Hartman, USA, the commander of CNMF. 

“The CNMF executes full-spectrum operations against adversaries who threaten the U.S. and our allies and partners,” said Hartman. Still, the now sub-unified command has dealt with a variety of actors but seems to keep special attention on Russia. 

In 2018, it created the Russia Small Group to secure election integrity with the National Security Agency. While the formation was later renamed Election Security Group and continues operating to this day, this marked the beginning of an interest that grew in time. 

CNMF's mostly classified activities keep offering indications of its concerns, with a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency activity report in which it specifies that in coordination with Ukraine, it has detected adversarial activity. 

“Ukrainian partners are actively sharing malicious activity they find with us to bolster collective cyber security, just as we are sharing with them,” states the brief report. 

Recently, the Department of Defense has published that a 10-person team from the CNMF has been based in Ukraine since at least late 2021, months before Russia launched its invasion.  

The U.S.-Ukraine partnership has grown in this field, and more U.S. personnel are on the ground now. 

“That team grew from 10 to 39 people, working with Ukraine to strengthen its cyber defenses and provide reassurance. It paid off big-time as Russia launched its invasion,” Gen. Nakasone was quoted as saying in the early December U.S. Department of Defense release. 

“The lesson: presence, persistence and the value of partnerships is what matters most,” was the general's assessment of the group's success on the ground.