Pentagon sets up secret tech sabotage office

In April the Pentagon quietly merged two classified programs to form the Information on the Technology Support Office (TSO), a secret unit tasked with undermining foreign tech that might erode U.S. military superiority. Its name could be mistaken for an IT help desk, but it is listed only in a handful of Pentagon records.

The TSO cannot launch operations directly. Instead, it procures the tools needed to disrupt foreign adversaries through teams of engineers, special operators and intelligence officers, and it works as a pipeline connecting other Pentagon programs while pooling approved cyber sabotage tools for other arms of the Pentagon to use.

Officials have raised questions about how the TSO will be overseen, noting that its covert nature could allow overreach without transparency, and that congressional oversight might expose operations that are meant to stay classified.