by Frank Bergman, Slay News:
U.S. Cyber Command has launched an investigation after five military cybersecurity personnel were found dead within just weeks of each other, triggering the Pentagon’s designation of the alarming deaths as a “suicide cluster.”
The extraordinary concentration of deaths occurred between early June and early July among people who worked for or closely interacted with Cyber Command, according to internal military communications reviewed by Bloomberg.
The deaths came as America’s elite military hackers were facing surging workloads amid the Iran war and an accelerating global cyber arms race driven by increasingly powerful artificial intelligence.
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Military officials have not established that the deaths are connected.
However, the number occurring within such a narrow period was sufficiently abnormal for Cyber Command to classify them as a “suicide cluster,” triggering intervention and a wider investigation.
Five Cyber Personnel Dead Within Weeks
As many as five people linked to Cyber Command were found dead of apparent suicide during the roughly month-long period, according to Bloomberg’s review of military records and interviews.
The Pentagon uses the term “suicide cluster” when multiple suicides occur unusually close together in time or location compared with what would normally be expected.
That designation has now placed Cyber Command under intense scrutiny.
The organization oversees some of the most sensitive military operations conducted by the United States.
Its personnel defend Pentagon networks from foreign attacks while simultaneously penetrating adversaries’ military computer systems.
Cyber operators can be tasked with crippling communications networks, disrupting air defenses, compromising command systems, and undermining enemy battlefield capabilities.
Much of that activity takes place behind the walls of highly secure facilities.
Almost all of it remains classified.
Military Hackers Have Been Showing Signs of Severe Strain
The psychological toll of military cyber operations has already raised alarm inside the Pentagon.
