The Department of Homeland Security has created a task force to secure U.S. technology amid concerns that the American supply chain has been infected by foreign hackers.

The public-private partnership is the first information and communications supply-chain task force and will provide recommendations and manage risk regarding hacks on American computer and communications systems.

“Threats to the nation’s IT and communications supply chain can severely impact our national security and nearly every facet of our economy,” Homeland Security Undersecretary Christopher Krebs said in a statement.

The task force will be located in the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate.

The private-sector co-chairs are Robert Mayer, of US telecom, and John Miller, of the Information Technology Industry Council.

Following the first meeting to take place in the coming weeks, the task-force will announce a formal membership list.

U.S. officials and industry officials said that foreign governments have increased their attacks on the American supply chain. Many of the hacks target firms at the end of the supply chain, according to experts from Lockheed Martin, one of the prime defense contractors.

“Private industry is making supply-chain threat mitigation a big part of their corporate strategy,” William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters Oct. 30.

“You are also starting to a combination of nation-state actors being less inhibited and being more aggressive in attacking our supply chain.”

Justin Lynch is the Associate Editor at Fifth Domain. He has written for the New Yorker, the Associated Press, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and others. Follow him on Twitter @just1nlynch.

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