CYBERWAR/DEFENSE/NSA/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The head of the National Security Agency told lawmakers Tuesday [2-27-18] that he hadn’t been formally asked by President Donald Trump to take steps to disrupt Russian election hacking activity at its source.
Adm. Mike Rogers was asked by Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing whether he had been directed by the president, through the secretary of defense, to strike ‘the origin of these attacks.’… Elaborating, he said that while he has directed his agency to begin ‘some specific work’ that he wouldn’t specify in an unclassified setting, the agency hasn’t pursued other work to counter Russian meddling… The exchange before the Senate committee indicated that while the U.S. has taken defensive steps against Russia for its suspected hacking activity, it wasn’t conducting offensive measures, such as attacking the networks behind the intrusions in U.S. elections. Adm. Rogers and other intelligence officials say they don’t expect the intrusions to stop…
Asked about Adm. Rogers’s comments, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later Tuesday that the president ‘is open to looking at a number of different ways to make sure Russia doesn’t meddle in our elections.’
Ms. Sanders said there could be action in the ‘coming weeks and months.’ “
-Nancy A. Youssef, “NSA Chief Says Trump Hasn’t Ordered Agency to Disrupt Russian Hacking,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 27, 2018 07:33pm