We heard from U.S. Senator
Richard Burr (R-NC) today at the Council on Foreign Relations' Symposium on
Hacked Elections and Online Influence.
Burr chairs the Senate
Intelligence Committee directing the investigation of Russian election
influence. He said, "The Russians want to create chaos in our
society." No doubt, and they've succeeded. Burr added, "To believe
Russia has changed since the Cold War is a myth. ... They still believe if it's
bad for the United States, it's good for them."
He said the Russian
threat extends far beyond influencing elections and into efforts to attack
critical U.S. infrastructure such our electrical grid and to steal corporate
and personal data, as well.
While Burr's diagnostics are
very important - and terrifying - his solutions are vastly more elusive. He
said that "companies have to take individual responsibility" for
providing solutions. That's pretty easy to say. "Absent that," he
added, "you leave it up to us" in government to identify the correct
solutions. In reality, of course, government must play a foundational, enabling
role in addressing cybersecurity.
The government's national security role is inescapable, though it worries Burr. "The government doesn't understand the disruption of technology that's coming over the next 10 years," he said. "The architecture of government just slows down the pace of technology," he added.
The government's national security role is inescapable, though it worries Burr. "The government doesn't understand the disruption of technology that's coming over the next 10 years," he said. "The architecture of government just slows down the pace of technology," he added.
That's all undoubtedly true,
Senator, but somebody better jump-start the federal response to cyber threats
and encourage the public-private partnerships needed to beat back Russia's next attempt to undermine our democracy. There is just too much at risk, as recent events have demonstrated. I'm all for intelligent outsourcing. Outsourcing too much of our nation's cyber defense or the wrong parts of it to the private sector, however, will create a vast array of new
problems.
Sure, as Burr reminded
us, the U.S federal government moves in slow motion
compared to China or even Russia whose leaders can literally dictate relatively
speedy technology outcomes. This is, no doubt, because they steal some of the
technology from us. Who says irony is dead?
Image courtesy of University of Hawaii