- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

New US Cyber-Digital Task Force to Focus on Combating Election Interference

CC0 / Pixabay / Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity - Sputnik International
Subscribe
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in a statement on Tuesday the stand-up of the Justice Department's Cyber-Digital Task Force to combat the use of the Internet to interfere in US elections and the theft of personal and corporate data.

"The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments," Sessions said in the statement. "At the Department of Justice, we take these threats seriously. That is why today I am ordering the creation of a Cyber-Digital Task Force to advise me on the most effective ways that this Department can confront these threats and keep the American people safe."

Top priority has been given to the "study of efforts to interfere with our elections; efforts to interfere with our critical infrastructure, [and] the mass theft of corporate, governmental and private information," the statement said.

White House national security advisor H.R. McMaster speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington, U.S., file photo. - Sputnik International
World
US Wants Cybersecurity Dialogue With Russia if It's Fair - McMaster
The Cyber-Digital Task Force will be populated by personnel from a cross section of the Justice Department, including the FBI, National Security Division and Drug Enforcement Administration. The task force must report its findings to Sessions in June, according to the statement.

The creation of the task force comes on the heels of Special Counsel Robert Muller's February 16 indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three organizations for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 US election.

Russian officials have repeatedly said the allegations of election interference are groundless and intended to deflect public attention from actual instances of election misconduct as well as other pressing concerns.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала