Madam Speaker, I rise to discuss a critical national security challenge and an imminent threat to the safety of our country - cyber attacks. 

Computers control everything, from our banking systems to our electric grid, our military networks to our business and government functions. Never, in the history of the world, have so many people had so much access to ideas, knowledge and skills. 

However, increased access also opens up additional vulnerabilities that allow our adversaries to potentially cause catastrophic economic and physical harm to our country.  Nation-states, terrorists, and other actors who seek to harm our nation understand that the future of warfare is through cyber attack.

In recent years, American military leaders have noted an unfortunate increase in cyber attacks.   Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright told Congress in March 2007 that “America is under widespread attack in cyberspace.” 

But securing our networks is not simply a responsibility for the U.S. military.  Mitigating vulnerabilities in America’s critical infrastructure networks involves the work of a wide variety of government agencies and private sector entities. 

Everyone – both the public and private sectors – plays a role in securing cyberspace, and we must all work together to confront these threats.  Our nation has some significant challenges ahead of us in the cybersecurity world.  The U.S. is under attack and we’re losing the battle. We must act swiftly and boldly to respond to this threat.
 
I recently co-chaired the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurty for the 44th Presidency.  Our goal was to develop recommendations for a comprehensive strategy to improve cybersecurity in federal systems and in critical infrastructure. 

In December 2008, after hundreds of hours of briefings, working group meetings, and discussions, we released our final report, proposing a number of recommendations for the incoming administration to consider.  Among the most critical and timely of those recommendations is the creation of a comprehensive national security strategy for cyberspace. 

Comprehensive means using all the tools of U.S. power in a coordinated fashion: international engagement and diplomacy, military strategy and action, economic policy tools, and the work of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. 

This strategy should begin with a public statement by the president that the cyber infrastructure of the United States is a vital asset for national security and the economy and that we will protect it, using all instruments of our national power.

The Commission also recommends that the nation’s cyber leadership must be housed in the White House, not in any single agency. We used the response to nuclear proliferation as a model for how to approach cybersecurity.  Just as no single agency is in charge of nonproliferation, we recognized that the same is true for cyber policy. 

To coordinate these efforts, we proposed creating a new office for cyberspace in the Executive Office of the President. This office would combine existing entities and also work with the National Security Council in managing the many aspects of securing our national networks while protecting privacy and civil liberties. It’s my hope that that the leader of this new office will be an assistant reporting directly to the president. 

I am very pleased with President Obama’s appointment of Melissa Hathaway to conduct a 60 day interagency review of the Federal cybersecurity mission. She is very knowledgeable of the issues surrounding the CNCI and I have spoken with her regularly, encouraging her to review our critical infrastructure’s defensive posture. 

We have so many agencies who share in overseeing critical infrastructure protection that many issues fall through the cracks.  This is an area that we must improve on, and I look forward to working on legislation to implement the recommendations of the Commission to ensure our nation is protected from cyber attacks.