The Pentagon is mobilizing to defend November’s elections. Yet, in some respects, the Pentagon’s hands are tied. U.S. law allows foreign governments to direct propaganda at American audiences without disclosing the material’s origin.
On Sept. 22, five weeks before Election Day, War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Cyber Command and the Defense Intelligence Enterprise to take all lawful actions to defend U.S. election infrastructure ahead of the midterm elections. Hegseth’s instructions were to collect intelligence on foreign threats, mitigate foreign meddling, and defend against cyber threats. While important, the directive runs on an old playbook. The Pentagon can only reach foreign networks and infrastructure. It can do nothing about the conduct inside the United States that lets foreign networks operate undetected.
