Securing Democracy: 110th IO Bn. Supported 2020 Elections

^{By Staff Sgt. Sarah M. McClanahan, Maryland National Guard Public Affairs Office}

During the 2020 United States presidential election, National Guard cybersecurity and information operations field support teams across the country were deployed to ensure the election was conducted in a secure and safe manner. Members from the 110th Information Operations Battalion, Maryland Army National Guard, worked closely with the U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) to protect the election process by countering adversarial bad actors throughout 2020.

            In mid-January 2020, the 110th IO Bn. deployed a team of five Soldiers to Fort Meade, Maryland, where they served as information operations planners for the CNMF.

            “Information operations is about integrating, synchronizing, and planning operations with multiple information related capabilities,” said U.S. Army Maj. John P. Rodriguez a member of the 110th IO Bn. “Our job is to plan [the use of] these various capabilities and make sure they all mesh together so that we can achieve a larger effect than if we were using just cyber [or any one capability] by itself.”

            Securing the 2020 presidential elections was NSA and USCYBERCOM’s number one priority and navigating through the various capabilities of different organizations was part of the procedure that safeguarded the election process and a component of the battalion’s mission.

            Rodriguez said many of the information related capabilities his team used in previous deployments have helped them build their team and prepare for their current mission. He also added that in the Maryland National Guard, we have a lot of expertise in information operations planning.

            Each of the five members supported a different task force within the CNMF and were selected based on their extensive training in information operations and proven competency with information operations from previous deployments.

“There were many volunteers from our unit to do this mission. I am very grateful that I was selected to be a part of this,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Quintin Steele, 110th IO Bn.

            Operations planning can provide U.S. cyber teams insight into the tactics used by adversaries.

“Defending forward means that we are engaging with the adversary on neutral networks and on their own networks rather than waiting for them to penetrate U.S. or DoD networks,” explains Rodriguez. “If you want to defend an airfield, you don’t just sit on the airfield. You need to establish a perimeter to push your adversaries back so they can’t easily hit your base. We go out and challenge them before they can get to us.”

While the 110th IO’s mission to support the 2020 election has passed, they were just one component of a network of entities that secured the democratic processes.

“I know everyone on this team [was] honored to be a part of this mission,” expressed Steele. “We are glad that MDNG has such a strong relationship with USCYBERCOM and hope that our success here can bring future missions and opportunities for Guardsmen to continue supporting these efforts. I hope the MDNG continues to get these chances to show the U.S. Army, and the nation for that matter, that we are a professional, experienced force that can greatly enable ongoing missions and get the job done.”