CYBERCOM Beefs Up Cybersecurity Collaboration With Zambia

Members of the U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force collaborated for about three months with cyber defenders in the Zambian Information Communication Technology Authority, during which the American team tracked and eliminated vulnerabilities in Zambia’s networks.

According to CYBERCOM, the CNMF’s first Zambian deployment is part of its intelligence-driven Defend Forward program to ward off malicious activities in homeland cyberspace while also partnering with U.S. allies to help protect their networks. Since 2018, CNMF had more than 60 deployments, conducting cybersecurity missions in 28 countries, CYBERCOM said.

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Lorna Mahlock, CNMF commander, shared that working with allies opens new insights on adversarial activities and enables improvement in collective cyber defense and strengthening of global cybersecurity.

The learnings from CNMF missions overseas are made accessible to public and private sector cyber defenders through CYBERCOM’s Under Advisement program, providing the opportunity to strengthen cyber defenses before the threats can hit U.S. networks. 

Partner countries in each CNMF deployment also get a report of the U.S. cyber mission that they hosted, providing them with inputs on boosting network defense and further strengthening global barriers against malicious cyber activities.