The house hearing today focused on the federal government of Cyber Security programs and initiatives. It includes election and system designation is Critical Infrastructure and modernizing the federal government it system. From House Homeland Security subcommittee this is one hour and 20 minutes. The committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on Cyber Security and Infrastructure Protection will come to order. First of all, im sure i speak for all of us here on the day as expressing our deepest condolences to all of the family members and all of the victims of yesterdays tragedy in las vegas. It is like the ones yesterday really demand the utmost humanity in response to such blind hate and able and hopefully it will give us a renewed sense of purpose today as we approach the task of the day. The subcommittee is meeting today to receive testimony regarding the department of Homeland Securitys Cyber Security mission. I recognize myself for an Opening Statement. We are here today, at the start of national Cyber SecurityAwareness Month, to discuss what i believe is one of the defining Public Policy challenges of this generation. The Cyber Security posture of the United States. We have seen Cyber Attacks hit practically every sector of our economy with devastating impacts to both Government Agencies in the private sector of life. It is our shared duty to ensure that we are doing our very best to defend against the very real threat of our cyber adversaries are posing. Make no mistake, the Cyber Security challenges we face are about much much more than something protecting bottom lines or intellectual property or even our nations most classified information. They also impact the personal and often irreplaceable information of every american. This year we have seen on a grand scale just how much damage can be done by a single individual or entity looking to conduct a cyber attack. The fax breach shows that it takes only one bad actor and one exploitable vulnerability to do something that compromises the information of 145 million americans and this is not the first cyber attack that has garnered National Attention and unfortunately it almost assuredly will not be the last. As the members of this panel and our witnesses here know well, there is no Silver Bullet or guaranteed technology to fix the Cyber Security problem. Leeds are National Effort to safeguard and enhance the resilience of our nations physical and Cyber Infrastructure helping federal agencies and when requested the private sector hardened their networks and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Nppd partners with Critical Infrastructure owners and operators and other Homeland Security enterprise stakeholders to offer a wide variety of cybersecurity capabilities such as system assessments, response and mitigation support and the ability to hunt for malicious cyber activity. This collaborative approach to mitigating cyber incidence is meant to privatize meeting the needs of dhs as partners and is consistent with the growing recognition among government academic and Corporate Leaders that cybersecurity is increasingly interdependent across sectors and much must be a core aspect of all Risk Management strategies. This committee has been working hard to ensure that nppd and dhs in its entirety has the necessary authorization and organization it needs to combat growing cyber threats. Dhs needs a strong and sharp workforce and an efficient organizational structure to support both that cybersecurity and its Infrastructure Protection missions. This year the Committee Markup and passed h. R. 3359 to the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency act of 2017 to reorganize and to strengthen nppd. As the cyber Threat Landscape continues to evolve, so should dhs and in doing bad h. R. 3359 is the tool that we will use to bring nppd to a more visible role in cybersecurity of this nation. As a committee and is a congress we have taken important steps in the right direction with legislation on information sharing, on modernizing federal Government Information Technology and in getting our state and local officials the cybersecurity support that they need. Some of these programs have been years in the making. Realtime collaboration between the government and the ers a lofty and worthwhile goal. Through the Automated Indicator Sharing Program or ais, dhs has been partnering with industry to create an enhanced broader information sharing environment and we have made progress. We know that proactive information sharing is only as good as the information being provided. That type of relationship can only be made possible with a Strong Foundation of trust. Im looking forward to a robust discussion today not only about how the department can be best organized and quick to ensure that we are leveraging the resources of the federal government towards this a mention immense talents but also how the government can or should grow the necessary partnerships to achieve the greater cybersecurity for our nation. We have to get this right because new technologies, the internet of things drive or less cars, Artificial Intelligence and climate quantum computing are all rapidly evolving so we need to be securing at the speed up innovation and not the speed up bureaucracy. We are in an era that requires flexibility, resiliency and discipline and i hope that i will hear those values operationalized in the testimony. Cyberspace plays an increasingly dominant role in the fabric of the American Society and a will take continued collaboration and across publicprivate international and domestic spaces to keep making the advancements needed to prioritize cybersecurity for our country. I know this is a responsibility that everyone on the subcommittee takes extraordinarily seriously and i look or to the discussion today with their witnesses. The chair now recognizes the ranking minority member of the subcommittee the gentleman from louisiana mr. Richman for his Opening Statement. Thank you mr. Chairman. Im pleased we are kicking off Cybersecurity Awareness month by talking to the department of Homeland Security about that Cybersecurity Mission and how congress can help ensure dhs is wellpositioned to protect Critical Infrastructure from Cyber Attacks. Before i begin however i would like to sum my condolences to the families of the victims of sunday nights horrific shooting. To the survivors, you are in our thoughts and prayers and to the brave First Responders who ran into danger when everyone else was running away from it we are grateful. The democrats on this committee has said this before but it bears repeating. At some point we are going to have to come together and enact sensible gun legislation. The congressman representing new orleans i cannot sit silently as the president calls the hurricane who is trying to help them to the admin to katrina and i know what its like when you are at your most vulnerable moment and you have lost everything and what you are looking for its assistance because its beyond your capacity to respond to the storm of that magnitude. Having seen the people grieve the loss of their homes in his assisted struggle to piece their lives back together i can tell you the last thing the people in puerto rico and the Virgin Islands need are insults. I urge the president to take a break from twitter roll up sleeves and get to work returning to the issue at hand as i mentioned i represent new orleans which has Significant Energy sector assets. Last month with their disturbing reports of a new waive of efforts to breach Energy Sector networks in the United States according to symantec in some cases hackers achieve unprecedented access to operational systems that in light of these reports im interested to know how the department of Homeland Security and the department of energy are working together to secure Energy Sector networks and make them more resilient. Additionally as a member of this committee and the Congressional Task force on Election Security i am eager to hear about dhs activities to secure our election systems. Although the administrations commitment to the Critical Infrastructure designation appeared to waiver earlier this year i was encouraged when acting secretary duke told Committee Democrats last month that there are no plans to resend the designation. With that comment i look forward to hearing about the progress dhs is making to help the state and local government secure election of the infrastructure and whether the department has adequate resources to carry out its responsibilities in that space. For example i understand theres a ninemonth wait for a risk and Vulnerability Assessment and some secretaries of state have complained about the clearance process for elections officials. Im concerned that these kinds of challenges may deter some states particularly those in the Critical Infrastructure in designation from taking full advantage of the resources dhs can bring to bear. To that point dhs a struggle to build some of the relationships necessary to executing its Election Security mission. Although ive heard that dhs is making progress in this regard i am concerned mistakes made notifying certain secretaries of state that their election infrastructure had been targeted , though it had not been, may have undermined the trust that dhs has sought to build. I will be interested in learning what do you need from congress to address election infrastructure request more quickly and build trust within the elections infrastructure community. Finally, when ms. Manfred testify before the subcommittee in march i asked when i could expect the dhs Cybersecurity Strategy. The strategy required pursuant to legislation my op erred due march 23 still has not been submitted to congress. I understand the Trump Administration did not fill leadership positions relative to the execution of dhs Cybersecurity Strategy with any real sense of urgency and ongoing vacancies may be contributing to the delays but the strategy is six months overdue and that is not acceptable. Without mr. Chairman i yield back the balance of my time. I thank the gentleman. The chair now welcomes and recognizes the chairman of the full committee my colleague from texas mr. Mccaul for any Opening Statement that he might have. Thank you mr. Chairman. I would like to extend my thoughts and prayers to the victims and family members of the horrifying tragedy in las vegas. Im hopeful as americans we can prevent such violence from happening in the future. Im pleased to be here at this important hearing today with our distinguished guest at this hearing. National security has continued continued threatened by islamist terrorists to radical regimes building weapons of mass destruction human traffickers transnational gang members like ms13 string across our border. Theories threats are wellknown and we need to do everything we can to stop them as we see them coming however we also find ourselves in the crosshairs of invisible attacks and sustained cyber were from nationstates and other hackers and as we become more and more reliant on Computers Smartphones and her personal and professional lives everyone is a potential target and sadly many of us have already been victims. Over the past few years we have seen many successful largescale labour attacks take place. In Early September hackers were able to breach equifax and Credit Reporting Agency dating access to Sensitive Information on as many as 143 Million People in 2016 we know that russia tried to undermine our electoral system and democratic process and in 2015 we learned that china stole over 20 million security clearances including mine and these kinds of violations are simply unacceptable. Im proud to say over the last two years this Committee Committee of Homeland Security has recognized these threats strengthening the defense of our nations networks. In 2014 we enacted several important bills that empower dhs to bolster its workforce and update fisma for the first time in 12 years. A year later that cybersecurity act became law which enhances information sharing and makes dhs the lead conduit for cybercyber indicators and defensive measures within the federal government. While information sharing has come a long way the wannacry ransom attack illustrated how beneficial these relationships are. Just last week the cybersecurity coordinator at the white house noted we need to provide the Public Sector put more expansive access to cyber threat information in a controlled setting something i believe we need to strengthen. Issues relating to the sharing of classified information with the private sector like accrediting skiff space granting security spaces to key personnel and enabling Twoway Communications are issues we are looking at closely. In other words we have made great progress and the way indicators are shared but i want to examine if we can do more regarding the over all the sharing of a supplied information. Earlier this year i was pleased to see President Trump give an executive order to strengthen the Cyber Security of Critical Infrastructure. Going forward im hopeful that the house can advance legislation that ive introduced that can elevate nppd as a Standalone Agency and better support the Cybersecurity Mission at dhs. This month is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a time to learn more about these threats and offer ideas on how we can best to cure ourselves against these growing threats. While we have had some success on this issue we must do more. Our cyber enemies including terrorist are always looking for new ways to carry out their next attack. Unfortunately this is an issue that i believe transcends party lines. Its not a republican or democratic issue so lets Work Together to make our cybersecurity strong and keep the American People safe. Again i would like to thank the witnesses for being here today and thank you for your service. A very important component of the department that often as i mention my opening we focus on counterterrorism and the border and other things but i consider this mission at the department to be one of the most important that this nation faces. I look forward to the conversation and congress and the executive branch working together and how we can work as leaders in the private sector to advance the nations cybersecurity soot that id like to yield back to the chairman and if i may submit my questions for the record. I thank the chairman and the chair now welcomes and recognizes the ranking minority member of the full committee the gentleman for mississippi mr. Thompson for his Opening Statement. Thank you very much. Good morning. I would like to thank chairman and Ranking Member for holding this hearing. There is no doubt that our country is facing an evolving a rate of cyber threats. As we stand here today our enemies are thinking of new and novel ways to strike at everything from banks to hospitals and chemical facilities. Nefarious actors even want to disrupt some of our most basic institutions. Last y