US ‘Cyber Warriors’ Help Balkan Allies Resist Hackers

Amid continuing fears about cyber threats to democracy, the US is deploying so-called "cyber warriors" to a number of friendly countries in Eastern Europe include Ukraine, Montenegro and North Macedonia, to help them resist attacks.

US Cyber Command, which coordinates cyberspace operations to defend US interests, is also cooperating with the authorities in those countries to prevent potential threats, the US embassy in Montenegro told BIRN.

"US European Command and US Cyber Command have worked closely with NATO ally Montenegro conducting cyber cooperation to increase interoperability, share best practices, and deter malign influence on the democratic processes of our allies, partners, and the United States," the embassy in Podgorica said.

It declined to reveal operational details and technical aspects of the engagement.

But Brigadier General Timothy Haugh, commander of Cyber Command's national mission force, said recently that as part of an operation internally called "Synthetic Theology", Cyber Command had deployed "cyber warriors" to Ukraine, North Macedonia, and Montenegro to help defend those countries' networks, and collect intelligence on adversaries, IT news website CyberScoop reported on May 7.

During a round table at the Integrated Cyber Center and Joint Operations Center in Fort Meade, Maryland, Haugh "said these kinds of partnerships will continue to grow", the report said.

"When we look to do partnerships overseas … we want to do that anywhere where there's a potential adversary that would also target our electoral systems," General Haugh was quoted as saying.

The report noted that the US intended to actively thwart possible election interference from countries like Russia, "which the US intelligence community...