A cyber-warfare specialist serving with the 175th Cyberspace Operations Group of the Maryland Air National Guard, works in the Hunter’s Den at Warfield Air National Guard Base. Credit: JM Eddins Jr, Air Force.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has confirmed that it is working to bolster cybersecurity amid increasing threats from adversaries.

In an event, Defence Department’s Cyber Policy principal director Madeline Mortelmans said that the US Cyber Command has undertaken a comprehensive approach to defend its infrastructure and respond to cyber and other threats.

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She added that Cyber Command is equipped to carry out defensive and offensive cyber operations.

This comes amid allegations from the US side that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are increasingly resorting to hostile cyber activities.

Mortelmans said China is using cyber technology for espionage activities in a bid to gain military and economic advantages.

A DoD statement said: “In 2018, the justice department estimated that more than 90% of economic espionage cases involved China and more than two-thirds of the cases involved in the theft of trade secrets were connected to China; this in spite of their 2015 pledge not to use espionage for their economic benefit.”

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In July, the DOJ indicted two cyber actors associated with China’s Ministry of State Security for stealing data, Mortelmans added.

She further said Russia is also engaged in similar cyber-espionage activities while North Korea has a history of hacking financial networks to siphon funds to support their armament programme.

Iran has also conducted disruptive cyberattacks against the US and allied companies.

Recently, the US Strategic Command has announced that it is modernising its capabilities to tackle joint threats from Russia and China.