Category Archives: house foreign affairs committee

Watchdog suggests State Department should have used ‘evidence’ to explain new cyber bureau

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Government auditors concluded in a withering, deadpan report Thursday that the State Department should have used “data and evidence to justify its proposal” to establish a new cyber-focused bureau. Just before the Trump administration wound down, the State Department said it would create a Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies, drawing fire from the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who said he agreed that State needed a cyber bureau but that its last-minute proposal was “ill-suited” for the job. The Government Accountability Office reviewed the Jan. 7 proposal, and found that State “has not demonstrated that it used data and evidence to support its proposal, particularly for the bureau’s focus and organizational placement.” “Without developing evidence to support its proposal for the new bureau, State lacks needed assurance that the proposal will effectively set priorities and allocate appropriate resources for the bureau to […]

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Proposed State Department bureau takes wrong approach to U.S. cyber diplomacy

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This week the State Department formally notified Congress of its long overdue plan to establish a new Bureau for Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies. This news, which was expected for almost a year, should in theory be welcomed by lawmakers. In 2018, the Republican-controlled House grew so frustrated with former Secretary Rex Tillerson’s plan to abolish the State Department’s cybersecurity coordinator – the country’s top cyber diplomat – that it passed legislation to not just reconstitute the position but actually elevate its stature and responsibilities. This rare rebuke of the administration by the president’s own party could have been rectified by Tillerson’s successor, Mike Pompeo. Instead, the department’s latest plan may be worse than Tillerson’s. There are two fundamental and related problems with the department’s proposed cyber bureau. First, the bureau’s focus is far too narrow. By limiting the scope of the bureau’s purview to security – and excluding the digital economy, […]

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State Department proposes new $20.8 million cybersecurity bureau

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The State Department has sent to Congress a long-awaited plan to reestablish a cybersecurity-focused bureau it says is key to supporting U.S. diplomatic efforts in cyberspace. The State Department’s new plan, obtained by CyberScoop, would create the Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) to “lead U.S. government diplomatic efforts to secure cyberspace and its technologies, reduce the likelihood of cyber conflict, and prevail in strategic cyber competition.” The new bureau, with a proposed staff of 80 and projected budget of $20.8 million, would be led by a Senate-confirmed coordinator and “ambassador-at-large” with the equivalent status of an assistant secretary of State, who would report to the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. The idea comes nearly two years after then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced he would abolish the department’s cybersecurity coordinator position and put its support staff under the department’s economic bureau. CSET would “unify the policy functions and […]

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The uphill battle to relaunch State Department’s cybersecurity policy office

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Be it through legislation or some internal decree, restoring the State Department’s cybersecurity policy office to a prominent place in the agency can’t come soon enough for advocates of U.S. digital diplomacy. Analysts and former government officials say U.S. leadership in shaping international behavior in cyberspace has stalled at a time when nation-state hacking groups are flexing their muscles. “I worry about a gap that leaves allies wondering and adversaries savoring the chance to take advantage of the perceived lack of U.S. leadership,” Christopher Painter, State’s former cybersecurity coordinator, told CyberScoop. “When you have diminished resources [and] when you have uncertainty, inevitably that causes some loss of momentum.” In the eight months since former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he would downgrade the department’s cybersecurity office, the United States has blamed North Korea for the destructive WannaCry ransomware attack, indicted Iranian hackers for terabytes worth of intellectual property theft, and […]

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Rex Tillerson proposes new ‘cyber bureau’ at the State Department

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has a plan to create a new “cyber bureau” within the State Department that would focus on building relationships with foreign governments to coordinate on international cybersecurity priorities, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The proposition first surfaced publicly during a committee hearing Tuesday on the state of U.S. cyber diplomacy. Former State Department Cybersecurity Coordinator Christopher Painter and former Pentagon cybersecurity adviser Michael Sulmeyer criticized Tillerson for shuttering one such office, which Painter previously oversaw, last year during a myriad other cuts. “The Department of State must be organized to lead diplomatic efforts related to all aspects of cyberspace,” says Tillerson’s letter to committee Chairman Edward Royce, R-Calif. Since Tillerson took the helm, the State Department’s cyber diplomacy mission had been consolidated and wrapped into the Bureau of Economic Affairs’ Office of International Communications and Information Policy. The decision was […]

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Definitions for cyberwar terms sought by House lawmakers

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The Trump administration should publish definitions for key terms in cyberspace conflict as part of a comprehensive national policy to defend the country from online attack, says a resolution introduced in the House. “The United States should develop and adopt a comprehensive cybersecurity policy that clearly define acts of aggression, acts of war, and other related events in cyberspace, including any commensurate responses” by U.S. forces, states the bipartisan resolution, H. Res. 200. It is sponsored by Democrat C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger of Maryland, whose district includes the Fort Meade headquarters of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, and by Republican Scott Taylor of Virginia, who represents the  defense-facility heavy Newport News-Virginia Beach area. Such “sense of the House” resolutions are non-binding, but the sponsors said they wanted to use the document to start a conversation about properly preparing the nation to defend itself from hackers, cybercriminals and other online enemies. The two men […]

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Experts warn Congress of ongoing Russian information warfare against Europe

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Russian intelligence forces are currently involved in an online disinformation campaign to undermine several crucial European elections, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday. IIves was one of four experts who spoke Thursday on Capitol Hill about Russian hacking and propaganda efforts designed to undermine The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Union. IIves was president of between 2006 and 2016, during a period in which Russian hackers launched a massive distributed denial of service-style attack on the country’s government agencies and private sector. “I would argue this will be the main battlefield over the next year,” IIves. “There are a number of key elections coming up among major countries … [and] in all cases we’ve seen significant meddling. The Dutch are so afraid they’ve decided to go back to paper balloting because of what might happen.” Lawmakers in Washington have […]

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