Florida U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services' subcommittee on cybersecurity, is urging Secretary of Defense James Mattis to "prepare to engage Russian cyber operators" attempting to influence the upcoming 2018 midterm elections
."Russia's influence activities continue in the United States and elsewhere," Nelson wrote in a letter to Mattis. "U.S. Cyber Command's Cyber Mission Force, should be ordered to prepare to engage Russian cyber operators and disrupt their activities as they conduct clandestine influence operations against our forthcoming elections."
Nelson's office says the Senator also urged the secretary to implement the recommendations of a Defense Department task force on cyber deterrence, which offered the Pentagon several suggestions on how to the U.S. could deter further Russian cyberattacks.
According to information from Nelson's office, the task force recommendations were presented to the Pentagon last February but have not yet been implemented.