Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has directed U.S. Cyber Command and the Pentagon’s combat support agencies to focus intelligence and cyber tools on foreign efforts to interfere in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Department of War (DoW) memo circulated Monday and dated Sept. 22 was addressed to the Cyber Command chief and the directors of the National Security Agency (NSA), the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
“In America, the people rule—and we must ensure that their voice remains sovereign, secure, and entirely undiluted,” the memo reads.
Hegseth wrote that secure voting plays a critical role “in sustaining the strength of our democratic system,” and that the department “will effectively wield its capabilities to protect and uphold the reliability of America’s voting mechanisms against external manipulation and disruption from foreign actors.” …