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The U.S. militarys cyber force and its premier spying agency have a new leader.

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, a pair of roles that make him responsible for defending the country from foreign hackers and striking back against them.

Lawmakers voted by voice to confirm Haugh, an Air Force lieutenant general who has served as Cyber Commands deputy commander for the past year, and promote him to the rank of general. Haugh was one of many military officials whose promotions had languished for months after Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) blocked their appointments to protest a Pentagon policy on abortions for service members.

Haugh will take over the reins of both elite cyber forces from Gen. Paul Nakasone, who dramatically expanded the two organizations public profiles and their relationships with foreign allies and private companies.

Under Nakasones watch, Cyber Command crippled ransomware gangs, protected Ukraine by hacking Russian forces and sent teams abroad to help other countries fend off digital attacks while returning with useful insights about how those adversaries operate. The NSA, meanwhile, created a program to share cybersecurity information and recommendations beyond defense contractors. The historically secretive organizations increasing openness about their work marked a dramatic shift, one that Nakasone and his team described as part of a deliberate effort to put their classified intelligence to better use.

Haugh will need to decide whether to continue, expand or restructure these NSA and Cyber Command initiatives, and hell have to evaluate Americas cybersecurity support to Ukraine and Israel as the two close U.S. allies fight major ground wars.

In the Middle East, Irans hacker army could jump into the war between Israel and Hamas at any moment, potentially unleashing a wave of attacks against critical infrastructure like Israeli hospitals and power plants in retaliation for Israels invasion of Gaza. (Iran-linked hackers have already breached several U.S. water facilities after targeting their Israeli-made equipment.) And in Eastern Europe, Russia could further intensify its steady barrage of cyberattacks against Ukraine in an attempt to break the stalemate between the two armies.

Haugh will also confront questions about the future of the union between the NSA and Cyber Command. When the Pentagon created Cyber Command in 2010, it chose the NSA director to lead the new organization, since Cyber Command would heavily rely on the spy agencys personnel and expertise. In the years since, there have been calls to separate this arrangement, but multiple administrations have rejected that idea.

Haugh has said that he supports the current structure because of the amount of overlap between the two organizations missions. But he has also promised to focus his attention on the NSA, whose morale and retention have sufferedin the decade since the embarrassing leaks by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.

My current leadership role with CYBERCOM and my familiarity and knowledge of its leadership, its mission, strengths and weaknesses means that I will be well positioned to comfortably delegate and direct its activities efficiently enabling time management and focus necessary to NSAs global enterprise, Haugh told lawmakers in July.

Haughs position overseeing the U.S.s electronic surveillance mission will put him on a collision course with privacy-minded lawmakers who are pushing for new limits on a key spying power, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that expires next April.

Haugh has called this provision, which lets the government spy on foreigners located outside the U.S. without a warrant, indispensable to national security. And as NSA chief, he could emerge as a more forceful critic of efforts to modify the law.

Before taking the No. 2 job at Cyber Command, Haugh led multiple Air Force organizations responsible for cyber warfare and intelligence collection, along with Cyber Commands main operational wing, the Cyber National Mission Force. He joined the Air Force in 1991 as a graduate of Lehigh Universitys ROTC program.

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Senate Confirms Biden's Pick To Lead NSA and Military's Cyber Force - The Messenger

The U.S. National Security Agency teamed up with other stateside departments as well as some in the U.K. to issue a cybersecurity information sheet, or CSI, on artificial intelligence system development.

The guidance, which includes input from the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre and U.S Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warns against adversarial machine learning attacks that could compromise data in AI technologies.

The CSI emphasizes the implementation of secure design, development, deployment and operation in AI systems. It recommends conducting a holistic assessment of AI-specific threats and using the findings to prepare the system for the evolving attack vectors.

The document also urges developers to compare the benefits and weaknesses of different AI models, taking into consideration factors such as training dataset characteristics, use case appropriateness, model complexity and component supply chains.

We wish we could rewind time and bake security into the start of the internet. We have that opportunity today with AI. We need to seize the chance, NSA Cybersecurity Director and Wash100 awardee Rob Joyce commented.

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NSA Releases International Cybersecurity Guidance on AI System Development; Rob Joyce Quoted - Executive Gov

FORT MEADE, Md.- The National Security Agency (NSA), UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), U.S Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and other partners have released Guidelines for Secure AI System Development, a Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI).

The agencies are releasing the report to help developers, providers, and systems owners develop, deploy, and operate secure Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, including those used in National Security Systems (NSS), by the Department of Defense (DoD), and by the Defense Industrial Base (DIB).

We wish we could rewind time and bake security into the start of the internet. We have that opportunity today with AI. We need to seize the chance, said Rob Joyce, NSA Cybersecurity Director.

According to the CSI, AI systems are subject to security vulnerabilities that need to be considered alongside standard cyber threats. For example, AI systems are vulnerable to adversarial machine learning (AML) attacks, which exploit fundamental vulnerabilities in machine learning (ML) systems, including hardware, software, workflows, and supply chains. Prompt injection and training data poisoning are examples of AML attacks that could enable malicious cyber actors to compromise an ML models classification or regression performance, perform unauthorized actions, or extract sensitive information.

The CSI indicates that secure by design principles are applicable to AI systems. Providers of AI components should implement security controls by design and default within their ML models, pipelines, and systems. Accordingly, the CSI focuses on four key areas of AI system development: secure design, secure development, secure deployment, and secure operation.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) co-authored the CSI with NSA and other partners. The authoring agencies advise that this CSI does not replace general cybersecurity best practices and risk management programs. Recommendations in the CSI should be considered in conjunction with established cybersecurity, risk management, and incident response best practices.

Read the full report here. Visit our full library for more cybersecurity information and technical guidance.

NSA Media Relations MediaRelations@nsa.gov 443-634-0721

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Guidance for Securing AI Issued by NSA, NCSC-UK, CISA, and ... - National Security Agency

[BJP protest: thats Pannun on the poster]

The critical and most worrying aspect of the Gurmeet Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun episodes that no one is paying attention to is just how deeply and extensively the US has penetrated the Indian governments communications network and thoroughly compromised it. It is doubtful if even the most secret discussions in Cabinet meetings and in the Prime Ministers Office are safe from the prying eyes and ears of the US National Security Agency (NSA), leave alone Indian embassies in North America and, perhaps, elsewhere.

NSA operates the largest constellation of satellites in low and high earth orbits, and maintains continuous worldwide electronic surveillance generating tons of elecronic intelligence daily. Only Russia and China have erected formidable electronic/cyber barriers to protect at least the communications networks carrying their most highly classified information and data. The NSA, incidentally, has the highest funding priority of any American intelligence agencies, its budget in hundreds of billions of dollars. The bulk of the analysing is done by CIA, among other intelligence receipients, of the raw NSA data. Incidentally, the largest CIA spend is on analysing incoming NSA and other data and information.

Pressed by the US not to reveal the electronic channels or to compromise the NSA means through which the intercepts were received is, in fact, the reason why the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not onpassed evidence that New Delhi has demanded about the alleged Indian official complicity in the killing of Nijjar. This bit of intelligence was given by the US to Ottawa under the Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement. If disclosed it would disclose to the Indian government the weaknesses in the Indian communications system or, much worse, pinpoint the mole inside the Indian High Commission as the source. Canada does not have the technical capability to monitor such communications traffic by itself. The US does, and cued the Trudeau dispensation to the contents of telephone calls the RAW station chief supposedly had with whosoever was on the outside.

It is curious the Modi regime has not denied an Indian government role in the conspiracy that Washington claims to have foiled to do in America a Nijjar to the Khalistani troublemaker Pannun who conveniently enjoys dual citizenship of the US and Canada, leaving him free to do mischief in both countries, and in the UK. Why hasnt Delhi demanded details from the US government as it did from Trudeau? Doesnt GOI want to know just how the US became aware of this supposed plot, and through which channels, and why the Americans are so confident about their accusation? Wheres the evidence? And was it generated by NSA/CIA/DIA or some other agency, or is it, as likely as not, another American mole at work in the Indian embassy on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington?

It is important for Indians to know. After all, it was not very long ago that the Head of RAWs Counter-Intelligence Operations (!!!) a Rabinder Singh (if I recall the name right), was identified as being on CIAs payroll. Before he could be nabbed, he was spirited away by the Americans with not a little help from Indian insiders to Kathmandu, and flown to New York city, where last heard he was reportedly living safe and sound, presumably on the CIAs dime.

In the context of a thoroughly exposed and vulnerable Indian official system, PMO was apprised by the US of what it had by way of irrefutable evidence. It may explain New Delhis cagey response, promising investigation and punitive action regarding the Pannun affair, something Trudeau was unable to draw from Delhi in the Nijjar case.

The more serious issue New Delhi and the Indian public ought to worry about is whether the Indian government has any secrets at all worth leaking? Or, is it taken for granted by Indian agencies that Washington is privy to any and all communications within the government between PMO, RAW and other intelligence units, MEA, Home Ministry, are tapped 24/7/365 (366 in leap years!)? Is this an uncomfortable reality the Indian government has to live with?

Such communications surveillance and monitoring, moreover, is facilitated also by the fact that the entire Indian official network, like the commercial mobile telephony infrastructure, is based fully on imported hardware and, run by foreign software.

This last is a problem a few of us have been futilely squawking about for years, and which SITARA (Science, Indigenous Technology and Advanced Research Accelerator) a pioneering organisation founded and run by retired ambassador Smita Purshottam and engaged in yeoman service to the nation, has majorly flagged. It has repeatedly warned the PMO and other departments of the government at the highest levels, of the national security perils of relying on foreign communications gear with frame embedded bugs and on malware infested imported software.

SITARA has had the occasional success. But, by and large, the various departments and ministries of the government seem unconcerned about the perils of purchasing whole European, Chinese and American systems and associated hardware, and usually Western software driving them, because the inherent dangers are not fully appreciated by those in authority. And this, mind you, despite the availability of safe, protected, indigenous counterpart tech of high quality. This is so eggregiously wrong an attitude and policy it boggles the mind, making one wonder if the government willfully makes itself vulnerable, its atmnirbharta rhetoric so much farce!

The fact is the Indian government and its myriad agencies, including the Indian military, despite all the evidence, continue to trust Indian technology, talent and industry IMMENSELY LESS than they do foreign tech, countries and suppliers. This despite Indian firms, mostly MSMEs, having developed fantastically advanced communications technologies and algorithms. And this despite being aware of the trouble such procurement policies can cause with all government communications being open secrets to the US and the West, and to China.

Now try conducting a half-way effective foreign policy when the parties you deal with are all in the know of the nuts and bolts of it!

Despite some little awareness of this fatal weakness in some sections of some ministries, the Indian government has NOT holistically addressed it, nor sought comprehensive solutions to zero out the risk . The problem has to be tackled on a warfooting. The government needs to invest massively in the private sector MSMEs and other tech innovators, producers and manufacturers in the country such that the necessary communictions wherewithal is entirely, completely and certifiably of Indian origin.

India, right now, has standout Indian startups that have already invented, patented and produced elements for a potential 6G photonic communications system using light quanta to carry voice, information, and data. They are pleading for investment, and custom from the government, but find themselves beating their heads against a stone wall. And then there are Indian companies, like Reliance Communications, which imported Nokia hardware from Finland in crates for their Jio mobile telephony service and labeled it indigenous, who enjoy the Indian governments largesse!

SITARA has been informing and canvassing with the PMO, Department of telecommunications, et al, for funds for these small tech innovation companies to integrate their various technologies into a prototype system for the GOI departments to test. But the government appears disinterested, apparently stuck in the global-free trade stream of thinking that more advanced countries long ago trashed.

It has compelled many brilliant but frustrated Indian talents to shift their small ventures (that I know of) to Singapore and Silicon Valley, with US firms, like Qualcom, running after them, offering technology development facilities, a de-bureaucratised business ecosystem, investment capital, and undertakings to buy their cutting edge technologies.

In this dismal scene we can be certain of one thing though: Once these technologies are fully developed and mature, they will be offered for worldwide sale in a few short years, and come back to India with the California cachet and the Silicon Valley stamp, whence the Indian government and the Indian military and hundreds of official agencies and units will scamper after them, ready to fork out thousands of billions of Indian taxpayers dollars in hard currency!

Such are the contours of the latest saga of technology development unfolding as tragedy in India.

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The Pannun Affair reveals a penetrated Indian government ... - Bharat Karnad

The victim is safe and being treated at a hospital for multiple bone fractures.

Authorities in the US have rescued a 20-year-old Indian student, who was held captive for months without access to a bathroom, viciously beaten, and forced to work at three homes by his cousin and two other men in an incident described as "absolutely inhumane and unconscionable." The victim, whose name was not disclosed, spent months trapped in three homes in the US state of Missouri.

On Wednesday, police descended upon a home on a rural highway in St Charles County. They later arrested Venkatesh R Sattaru, Sravan Varma Penumetcha and Nikhil Verma Penmatsa, and on Thursday charged them with offences including human trafficking, kidnapping and assault.

Police were dispatched to investigate the home after a concerned citizen became aware of his situation and called 911.

The victim is safe and being treated at a hospital for multiple bone fractures, as well as lacerations and injuries covering his entire body, said prosecutor Joe McCulloch.

Over seven months, the men locked the student in a basement and forced him to sleep on an unfinished floor without access to a bathroom, charges say.

He scavenged for scraps in nearby restaurant dumpsters and was beaten with electrical wire, PVC pipe, metal rods, wooden boards, sticks and a water supply hose for a washing machine, St Louis Post-Dispatch, a major regional newspaper, reported.

It's absolutely inhumane and unconscionable that one human being could treat another human being like this, said McCulloch at a news conference Thursday.

The three defendants are accused of confining and abusing the victim at three different homes owned by Sattaru in Defiance, Dardenne Prairie and O'Fallon, starting in April 2023, according to St Charles County's official website.

Sattaru was identified by investigators as the ringleader and lives in the O'Fallon home with his wife and children.

The main suspect in the case, Sattaru, 35, is additionally charged with human trafficking for the purpose of slavery and contributing to human trafficking through misuse of documentation.

Penumetcha and Penmatsa live in the home where the student was rescued.

Authorities said the student had come to the US from India last year with hopes of studying at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. Instead, he was taken to Sattaru's homes beginning in April and was forced to begin chores around 4:30 am, work a full day for Sattaru's IT company and then complete a list of evening tasks.

The student told police he regularly got three hours of sleep on a concrete floor in a locked basement where Sattaru monitored him with a surveillance camera, according to court documents.

If the 20-year-old didn't complete the tasks properly, he was severely beaten. Charges say he was forced to strip down naked and was hit all over his body. He was kicked, stomped and lashed, charges say, and his injuries included previous fractures and breaks that did not heal properly.

No one answered the door at Sattaru's home on Thursday afternoon. None of the three men had attorneys listed in court documents.

They beat him with their fists, they stomped on him, they beat him with electrical wiring, with PVC pipes, McCulloch said. They forced him to sleep in an unfinished basement, they starved him, and limited his access to the public and to restrooms. McCulloch commended that citizen for making the rescue possible.

If you see something, say something. We would much rather check it out and find nothing than have an incident like this that's been going on for nearly a year, McCulloch said.

Because the three suspects are wealthy and have political connections in India, McCulloch said they are being held at the St. Charles County Jail without bond.

Neighbours in O'Fallon were shaken by the arrests on Thursday.

Many said they'd had pleasant interactions with the family, waving as they passed on the street or playing with children in the cul-de-sac.

It's shocking, for sure, said Chirag Shah, who lives down the street from Sattaru's home.

And in Defiance, an unincorporated community of less than 100 people known for its wineries, gift shops and position along the Katy Trail, neighbours watched as police flocked to the home beginning Wednesday morning, the paper reported.

Police were told at first by a man in the home that they couldn't come inside, but the 20-year-old eventually came running from the basement. He was trembling uncontrollably, heavily scarred and suffering from bruising and swelling all over his body, charges say. PTI NSA AKJ NSA NSA

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"Unconscionable": Indian Student Held Captive, Forced Into Labour In US - NDTV