Trump chooses Army Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd to head NSA, Cyber Command

Dec 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, the deputy ​commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, ‌as director of the National Security Agency and head of ‌the U.S. Cyber Command, the Pentagon said Thursday in a statement.

A former Special Forces officer from South Carolina, Rudd would be elevated to ⁠general. He currently ‌serves as the No. 2 at the U.S. military's Indo-Pacific Command, which ‍is responsible for U.S. forces in the greater Pacific region.

The NSA, which focuses on signals intelligence and ​cyberespionage, is one of the world's most ‌powerful surveillance agencies and absorbs gargantuan quantities of data through electronic intercepts and spyware. Cyber Command is the Pentagon's top cyberwarfare unit and focuses both on hacking and defending military networks ⁠against foreign spies and ​saboteurs.

In a "dual hat" arrangement that ​dates back to 2010, the NSA director also oversees Cyber Command.

Rudd did not ‍return messages ⁠seeking comment. The NSA referred questions to the White House. Cyber Command did not ⁠immediately return a message seeking comment.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya, ‌writing by Christian Martinez, Editing by Franklin ‌Paul and Chizu Nomiyama )