The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s cyber subcommittee suggested the Defense Department is not making securing the cyber domain enough of a priority in a Friday hearing that came on the heels of yet another high-profile intrusion.
As Colonial Pipeline resumes shipping fuel following a ransomware attack, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., opened the hearing by expressing his frustration that lawmakers and the witnesses alike—two top DOD cyber officials—face an “uphill battle to put cyber front and center in the Department.” Lawmakers heard testimony from Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, and Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant of Defense for cyber policy.
“Out of five officially recognized warfighting domains, the senior civilian official for the air, sea, land, and space domains are military service secretaries,” Langevin said in his opening statement. “Yet—and with all due respect to Ms. Eoyang and her spectacularly overworked team—the senior civilian for cyber is four rungs lower than her counterparts overseeing other domains.”
Issues around personnel, authorities and resources dominated the hearing. In his questioning, Langevin probed Eoyang and Nakasone on responsibilities, asking why information operations and cyberspace operations are overseen by two different officials. He also asked whether Nakasone has the numbers he needs to carry out his mission.
“If our adversaries are operating below the level of armed conflict every single day, what type of force do we need to be able to ensure that we can counteract that, much in the same way that we have done in our support to the national elections,” Nakasone said, outlining a question needed to inform decision-making on force size. He later emphasized that adversaries are “increasing t ..
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