US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced a new Cybersecurity Task Force to “canvass the many ways that the Department is combatting the global cyber threat.” Orders for the newly-formed task force are rather vague, but AG has requested its first task to investigate efforts to interfere with US elections and infrastructure.
Members of the Cybersecurity Task Force will be formed from various Justice Department entities and could extent to include candidates from other federal agencies. Some other tasks on the task force’s to-do list include mass thefts of personal information, violent ideologies spreading and recruiting over the internet or using technology to stymie law enforcement and massive computer attacks.
At this time, it’s hard to tell how successful this task force will be or what kind of problems they will be able to really tackle. In a statement, Sessions said that “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…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.”
