Gen. Paul Nakasone, in prepared remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee, did not describe those operations, so it was not immediately clear whether these were efforts strictly at defending the United States against intrusions or offensive measures to shut down intruders. He said his command’s operations were designed “to get ahead of foreign threats before they interfered with or influenced our elections in 2020.”

A U.S. intelligence assessment released last week said that neither Russia nor any other nation manipulated votes or conducted cyberattacks that affected the outcome of the vote.