About 30 minutes into a virtual Senate hearing on revamping U.S. cyber policy, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent an alert warning of Chinese hackers targeting health care institutions.
The joint alert from the FBI and DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the bureau is investigating hacks by Chinese-backed actors stealing intellectual property and public health data related to vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. The statement also warned that “the potential theft of this information jeopardizes the delivery of secure, effective, and efficient treatment options.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pressed members of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission on their 75 cyber policy recommendations. The commission’s aim was to improve U.S. cyber policy and the cybersecurity of America’s critical infrastructure, such as that related to health care or the electric grid.
“One of the things this pandemic has showed us is how vulnerable we are,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said as a witness at the hearing. King serves as a co-chair on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
The commission report, released March 11, recommended a new, three-pronged U.S. cyber strategy dubbed “layered deterrence”: strengthening cyber defenses, establishing international norms and imposing costs.
The “imposing costs” piece has vexed policymakers from Capitol Hill to the executive branch, and the commission report doesn’t make specific recommendations for what that approach might look like. But one thing was clear to the commissioners: Costs must be imposed.
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