James Moylan Asks Experts For Advice On Solving Cyber Insecurities, Combatting Threats From China

6 months ago

During a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Del. James Moylan (R-GU) questioned witnesses about cyberthreats from China.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you, Chairwoman Mace and Ranking Member Connolly, for allowing me to wave into this

00:05 hearing and speak on an issue that has plagued my district and the United States at large.

00:12 The problem is clear. The People's Republic of China has unabashedly conducted cyber-welfare

00:17 against the United States for over a decade. The PRC uses proxy groups like Vote Typhoon

00:24 to step attribution for these cyber-attacks. As a veteran, I can personally say that divesting

00:32 cyber-attacks on the Office of Personal Management in 2015 was a cyber wakeup call.

00:40 While many cyber-attacks target our federal government, Chinese hackers' indifference

00:44 towards targeting civilians is apparent. Chinese leadership or their proxies has continued

00:51 to demonstrate a lack of concern toward attacking civilian infrastructures. Regardless of source,

00:58 the blatant disregard even to the extent of launching cyber-attacks during an active Category

01:03 5 typhoon on Guam, shutting down Guam's communications while extreme weather destroys billions of

01:09 dollars' worth of homes, businesses, and community facilities is simply inexcusable.

01:16 So my question, Mr. Evelina, cyber represents a facet of Chinese gray zone warfare that

01:25 the U.S. has struggled to contend with. Part of this problem stems from using cyber contractors

01:30 to circumvent the Chinese Communist Party attributions for these attacks. With those

01:38 companies in mind, could you recommend steps that the U.S. should take to properly distinguish

01:44 who attacks us?

01:46 Congressman Moynihan, thank you for the question and thank you for your support and efforts

01:51 in Guam and in the Pacific for us competing with our major adversary there. To answer

01:57 your question, sir, I think the first thing that has to happen, we have to be more aggressive

02:00 as a country, as an administration, working in partnership with Mandiant and others to

02:05 attribute these criminal entities as what they are. They're proxies for a state-sponsored

02:11 organization that we know is the Communist Party of China. China actors who are in the

02:17 Ministry of State Security or the People's Liberation Army oftentimes work part-time

02:21 jobs in these cyber organizations and do the bidding of the Communist Party of China and

02:26 oftentimes are utilized to do zero days and other cyber activities to obfuscate attribution

02:32 by the Communist Party of China. I think we have to get more aggressive as a country in

02:36 attributing those entities as what they are, long arms of the Communist Party of China.

02:43 Thank you. Mr. Joyce, with the limited cyber personnel already, Guam's cyber infrastructure

02:48 suffers from deterioration and lack of funding, leaving civilian and military assets vulnerable

02:53 to cyber attacks, while with Guam being one of the closest U.S. territories to China,

02:59 what policy advice would you give the President, the Governor, or even myself to solve Guam's

03:04 cyber insecurity? Thank you, Congressman, for your question. I think the most important

03:10 thing is we have to have the awareness and the priority on this crisis to give them the

03:18 resources to get rid of old, outdated, and insecure hardware. A lot of the tactics used

03:26 in the attacks are finding flaws that could have and should have been patched in old and

03:31 obsolete equipment. So if you can get the budgets for the infrastructure so that they

03:37 will have cyber-capable training, so that they will get rid of their old and antiquated

03:43 technology, and that they have the resources to get the support of the private industry

03:48 with the expertise, I think we can make a lot of headway on this problem. Perfect. Final

03:52 question. We've got about a minute for either – both of you, please. China's using the

03:56 national cyber power to harass districts and state-level actors. Could the panel briefly

04:01 explain the necessity of developing federal, state, or local cyber defense and responses?

04:08 Thank you, Congressman. I'll start. I think the state and local and tribal cyber capabilities

04:15 are the weakest point for our nation. I think the Chinese Communist Party exploits that,

04:19 especially at the county level. We see that throughout not only ransomware attacks, but

04:25 also, as we'll start to see, in election infrastructure. It's the weakest level.

04:28 And oftentimes, States throughout the United States don't have the money to invest and

04:32 to replace the legacy hardware that Mr. Joyce talked about. I think that's going to be

04:37 the first thing to do, is to pay for that legacy information, utilities to be removed.

04:42 Mr. Joyce?

04:45 I think it's got to be close collaboration between the private sector and the state,

04:51 local, and tribal entities. They are often resource and expertise poor. Someone going

04:58 to school with a cybersecurity degree, they're not excited to go into the local water utility

05:07 and be their CISO. So we've got to then augment them with private industry and technology

05:12 so that they can have top-notch security.

05:14 Thank you very much. Thank you to the panel. Thank you, Chairwoman Mace. Thank you.

James Moylan Asks Experts For Advice On Solving Cyber Insecurities, Combatting Threats From China

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