TMCnet News
MILLER CO-CHAIRS HEARING ON CYBER SECURITYMay 27, 2009 (Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, today released the following prepared remarks for the subcommittee's hearing on the policy, management and technical challenges associated with cyberspace as a warfighting domain: "I would like to reiterate a point I made several weeks ago during a keynote speech to a consortium of cybersecurity experts. Cyber warfare is happening now. Almost daily we see reports in the press that demonstrate the prevalence of malicious cyber activity and the growing threat it poses not just to our government, but to the private citizen as well. In the past two years, Estonia and Georgia faced cyber attacks on their national systems. "At various times, the Department of Defense has had to shut down networks because of intrusions and, last November, had to ban the use of removable, flash-type drives because of the threat of malware transmission. Congress itself has been the target of malicious cyber activity with several committees and member offices affected. On a personal level, we are constantly bombarded by email spam and warnings of false websites and phishing scams seeking to compromise our personal information. "The cyber threat has many faces, from the nation state using cyber space as a new intelligence front to criminal organizations seeking to steal our money and identities to the computer hobbyist who hacks for no other reason than the challenge of it; and the threat has many tools--from botnets and counterfeit chips to insider activity--to compromise our systems. In response, we need to be vigilant and persistent in our efforts to protect the information and communication on our systems. "Assuring our systems are protected is no small challenge. Just last month, reports about the cyber breach of the F-35 program highlighted the vulnerabilities of our systems. The large amounts of data being exfiltrated, even on the unclassified level, could pose a significant security breach when viewed in the aggregate. Additionally, the same reliance on technology that gives our military forces such an overwhelming advantage on the battlefield can represent our greatest weakness if those technologies' hardware and software can be compromised. "The Department has taken several significant steps to secure its networks and protect critical systems, but difficult decisions need to be made about what should be considered critical, and how those systems and components should best be defended. Risk management and analysis play key roles in targeting investment and efforts in information assurance, and building forensic capacity is important to help with damage assessments subsequent to intrusions. Policy, both at the Department level and at the national and international levels, needs to be re-examined to account for the realities of the cyber dimension. "So, we have before us today, several key players from the Department who can help explain better where the Department finds presently itself in assuring system security, what needs to be done to improve our capabilities, and how cyberspace, as a warfighter domain, needs to be incorporated into our national security strategies and policies. Of particular interest to me and this subcommittee is the continued implementation of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative and the Department's consideration of a Cyber Command. We look forward to your testimony and to assisting the Department in this vital area." #DAL1234# |