The head of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee wants to require a Senate-confirmed national cyber director in the coming annual defense authorization bill.
“The first recommendation I want to talk about which we’re working hard to get hopefully included in the defense authorization act so it can become law, is the need to put somebody in charge, a national cyber director,” Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said.
Johnson was referring to recommendations of the National Cyberspace Solarium Commission, members of which testified Wednesday during a committee hearing.
Johnson also pushed and heard support for legislation he’s proposed with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., which would give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency subpoena power over internet service providers, to be included in the NDAA.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a co-chair of the commission, explained how a new cyber director’s office would differ from CISA.
“CISA is always primarily going to have that mission of defending critical infrastructure, the .gov space, in a similar way in which [the National Security Agency] and [U.S. Cyber Command] defend the .mil space,” he told the committee. “The national cyber director would have a more coordinating function that is making sure that CISA, in performing that mission is also working well with NSA, with Cybercom, and all the other federal agencies that play in the cyber space.”
The would-be cyber director’s office would be able to coordinate across missions and do long term planning as CISA fights on a day-to-day basis to protect civilian agencies, he said.
Solarium commission member Suzanne Spaulding, who previously led the Department of Hom ..
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