Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson is more concerned about a cyberattack crippling the government than another Jan. 6-type assault on the Capitol, she said in an interview aired Saturday on CNN.
“Our networks ... have attempted intrusions every single day. And so, cybersecurity for me is a much greater concern than the prospect of thousands of people storming the West Terrace,” Gibson said.
Gibson’s comments come in wake of several significant cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, including a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline that crippled East Coast fuel supply last month and another on a major U.S. meat producer this week. Security analysts warned the USDA last month that ransomware could have more impact on the U.S. food supply than Covid-19 had.
Gibson said she agreed with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s statement earlier this week that the threat posed by ransomware has "a lot of parallels" to 9/11.
Gibson, who served in the military for 33 years and was a senior intelligence officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, replaced Michael Stenger, who resigned after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Jennifer Hemingway filled the role in the interim before Gibson took over the job. Gibson helped in a security review in the wake of the insurrection.
