By 2013 U.S. networks were already under constant attack from sophisticated nation-state actors. Hackers stole millions of sensitive records from the Office of Personnel Management, gained access to White House networks and destroyed dozens of computers at Sony Pictures from thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Department of Defense\u2019s own cyber teams couldn\u2019t hit back or work on enemy networks abroad because, officials said, the rules for such operations were incredibly stringent. In fact, one U.S. senator said DoD didn\u2019t conduct an offensive operation for five years. That\u2019s not to say the United States sat idly by in cyberspace \u2014 experts pointed to covert strikes and intrusions \u2014 but it does mean the Pentagon rarely or never used cyber operations as an overt response or to flex its power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was then. Now, it\u2019s been nearly two years since the U.S. Cyber Command first publicly mentioned new approaches to cyber operations<\/a>, known as defend forward and persistent engagement. The defend forward policy was formalized in the DoD cyber strategy in October 2018 and is best described as DoD working on foreign networks to prevent attacks before they happen. The way Cyber Command meets those goals is through persistent engagement, which means challenging adversary activities wherever they operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During that time, Cyber Command appears to have conducted at least three operations according to reporting from the Washington Post<\/a>, Yahoo News<\/a> and Reuters<\/a>. This includes disrupting internet access at a Russian troll factory to protect the integrity of U.S. elections and operations against Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\t