"U.S. Cyber Command Completes Defensive Cyber Mission in Croatia"

A U.S. Cyber Command team of defensive cyber experts returned from Croatia last month, where they were dispatched on a so-called “hunt forward” operation.  This mission is the 35th proactive cyber defense mission to be undertaken by the command as it seeks to forge more partnerships with other democracies and learn from the malicious cyber activity they confront.  Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), which sits inside Cyber Command, has launched hunt forward operations in 18 countries and in more than 50 foreign networks, including in Estonia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Ukraine.  The CNMF team worked with the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency’s Cyber Security Centre on the operation, “hunting on the prioritized networks of national significance and looking for malicious cyber activity and vulnerabilities.”  Cyber Command stated that the hunt forward operations are part of its strategy for “persistent engagement,” defined as the need to constantly interact with adversaries in cyberspace with speed and agility.  Cyber Command noted that “hunting” loosely translates to a “proactive cyber defense.” Cyber Command stated that hunt forward operations teams do not mitigate threats on partner networks, instead, they enable their counterparts to pursue and address the threats found.

CyberScoop reports: "U.S. Cyber Command Completes Defensive Cyber Mission in Croatia"