Cyber Command, CISA unveil secret joint operations

A little-known partnership between the country's military cyber forces and homeland defenders has stymied the impact of two state-linked attacks, senior officials disclosed. With so many cyber-related agencies in the US, it's often difficult for anyone outside of the government to understand which office is responsible for what during an attack. These disclosures are some of the first clear examples of how the Pentagon-based Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) cooperate. During the 2020 presidential election, the CNMF discovered Iranian-linked hacking group Pioneer Kitten lurking on a city's infrastructure "used to report the results of voting," Hartman said. CNMF looped in CISA, which contacted the jurisdiction — resulting in immediate remediation of the threat, the officials said. In another incident, CISA identified three federal agencies facing an "intrusion campaign from foreign-based cybercriminals," Goldstein said. CISA handed this information over to the command, which weighed how it could thwart the malicious hackers. However, much of this partnership still relies heavily on input from private sector partners.