Cyber capability boost

CYBERCOM Partners With DIA on Military Cyber Intelligence Expansion Across DOD

The U.S. Cyber Command is working with the Defense Intelligence Agency to pilot programs expanding the Department of Defense’s cyber intelligence efforts, according to two top military officials.

Gen. Timothy Haugh, Cybercom commander and National Security Agency director, revealed the joint efforts at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday, stressing that the growth of the DOD‘s foundational cyber intelligence benefits not only Cybercom but also the other combatant commanders it partners with each day. Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, DIA director, echoed Haugh’s statement in a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations hearing, DefenseScoop reported Friday.

Kruse, a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, told the lawmakers that he has initiated a 90-day fast-tracked program on strengthening foundational cyber intelligence along with addressing artificial intelligence challenges.

Haugh, also a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, pointed out that for multi-domain integration and understanding of adversaries to work, the starting point of foundational intelligence has to “grow across the defense intelligence enterprise as well.”

In the House Armed Services’ Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, both Haugh and Kruse also supported extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which enables the collection of electronic intelligence against non-U.S. persons overseas under federal court supervision.