NSA Chief Says Super Tuesday Defenses Showed Improvement

(Bloomberg) -- An intensive U.S. government effort to protect the Super Tuesday primaries from foreign interference made efforts in the 2018 midterm election look “like a pick-up game,” according to Paul Nakasone, who leads the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.

On Tuesday, the largest voting day of the Democratic presidential race, Nakasone said his team gathered at 6 a.m. and joined a “chat system” with other agencies -- including the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence community, Nakasone told a House Armed Services subcommittee Wednesday.

“This is all different than what we were doing in 2018,” he said. “In 2018, I look back on that, even though very successful, it looks like a pick-up game compared to what I saw yesterday.”

Averting a Repeat

U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity officials have said they are working together to prevent a repeat of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Democratic critics have said President Donald Trump has failed to provide needed leadership as he continues to dismiss the intelligence finding that Russia sought to help him win as a “hoax.”

Super Tuesday voting appears to have been gone ahead without technical glitches in most locales or a spike in disinformation, according to U.S. officials. Still, multiple officials -- including Department of Homeland Security Acting Director Chad Wolf and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs -- have warned in the last two days that adversaries continue to target the U.S. with disinformation.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said intelligence officials briefed him on Russian efforts to help him this year.

Social media platforms “are being utilized by our adversaries often to message our population,” Nakasone said on Wednesday. “We are seeing influence operations across a spectrum of different actors.”

“Malicious actors are trying to test our defenses and our resolve,” he said. “We are ready for them and for any others who may try to interfere with our democratic processes.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, John Harney

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.