Air Force Gen. Timothy D. Haugh took the helm of the National Security Agency and the Cyber Command on Friday, as the intelligence agencies and military brace for renewed efforts by foreign adversaries to influence the American elections this year.
General Haugh replaces Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, who took over in 2018 and helped focus the N.S.A. and Cyber Command on countering foreign efforts to interfere in American elections. The N.S.A. collects communications intelligence, like phone calls and computer traffic, and Cyber Command conducts operations on computer networks.
Securing the 2024 presidential election against outside interference and looking for operations that take advantage of new artificial intelligence strategies will be General Haugh’s first task.
Intelligence agencies say they do not know whether China will remain on the sidelines this year or increase its activity. But officials have said Russia is likely to expand its efforts over the 2022 midterm elections. For President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, this year’s elections have huge stakes, with Democrats supporting continued funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia and Republicans growing more skeptical of such aid.
Soon after he took over in 2018, General Nakasone created what he called the Russia Small Group, a team of experts from the N.S.A. and Cyber Command, to discover and deter attempts by Moscow to interfere in elections.
At the time, General Haugh was leading Cyber Command’s National Mission Force, which conducts offensive and defensive operations on computer networks. General Nakasone picked General Haugh to help lead the group along with the N.S.A. official Anne Neuberger, who is now the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology.
