Multiple countries across Latin America were noted by retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine who was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have been discovered by the U.S. Cyber Command to be compromised with Chinese malware during its hunt forward operations, DefenseScoop reports.
Assertions made by Caine who also defended the retention of a dual-hat arrangement for Cybercom and the National Security Agency regarding such a compromise identified in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee were neither confirmed nor denied by Cybercom, which only emphasized providing hunt-forward operations to foreign partners seeking its assistance in bolstering their defenses against foreign cyber threats. "By policy and for operational security, we do not discuss cyber operations, plans or intelligence. No operation will be publicly disclosed without the partner nation's consent," noted a Cybercom spokesperson.
