U.S. Cyber Command increased the number of operations in 2024 over 2023 and is on track for even more in 2025, the acting commander of CYBERCOM said last Friday.
“Deterrence is central to our strategy in cyberspace, and we are focused on maintaining a credible capability that dissuades adversaries from targeting our critical infrastructure,” Army Lt. Gen. William Hartman told the House Armed Services Committee’s panel that oversees cybersecurity. “In 2024 we executed over 6,000 successful operations, roughly 25 percent more than in 2023, and we are on pace to surpass that number in 2025. Our operations continue to grow in scale, speed and complexity.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), chairman of the subcommittee, asked whether the Trump administration is “rescoping our rules of engagement” to counter the relentless onslaught of cyber-attacks the U.S. continues to face from adversaries.
Hartman said that CYBERCOM is engaged with the nation’s adversaries “on a daily basis” and continues to change how it confronts them. The command has more work to do around policies, authorities, and capabilities, he said, noting that he would discuss this further in the closed session that followed the open hearing.
In 2024, CYBERCOM’s mission forces conducted more than two dozen hunt forward missions, “generating insights and constraining adversary freedom of maneuver,” Hartman said in his written testimony. He added that the Cyber National Mission Force has an artificial intelligence task force that is having operational success in an increasing number of pilot projects.
Hartman in his written commands also reported that after years of effort, all of the military services’ cyber components have achieved “foundational readiness standards across the forces they present to our command.”
Bacon in his opening statement said that given it took more than 12 years to get to foundational readiness, this “is not something to celebrate” and that more needs to be done to get to higher, sustained readiness levels.
Bacon and the subcommittee’s ranking member, Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), in their opening remarks criticized President Trump’s recent firing of Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was commander of CYBERCOM and director of the National Security Agency. Haugh was relieved of command in early April with no explanation.
The New York Times, which broke the story, reported that Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and far right conservative political activist, allegedly urged Trump to fire Haugh because he had been recommended for the role by Army Gen. Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is considered disloyal to the president. The Times also reported that administration officials felt Haugh did not move fast enough to eliminate diversity programs.
“General Haugh was the most cyber experienced officer to ever hold this position,” Bacon said. “He was widely respected by his people and his peers and feared by our enemies. Removing him from the cyber battlefield in this way served absolutely no national security interest. All this did was help Russia, China, Iran and North Korea to do what they could not do for themselves.”
Secretary of Defense Hegseth “will have to answer for this” when he appears before the full committee, Bacon said.