Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen demanded Wednesday that Congress pass legislation by the end of the year that turns the department’s cybersecurity office into an agency that has the freedom to operate independently.
“DHS wasn’t built for a digital pandemic. Our cybersecurity arm — the National Protection and Programs Directorate — needs to be authorized in law and transformed into a full-fledged operational agency,” Nielsen said during a speech at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “Today, I ask Congress to pass legislation immediately, and absolutely before the year ends.”
Nielson built upon her prior assessment that cyberattacks have become the greatest threat to the security of America’s government, businesses, and people following the department’s focusing for years on counterterrorism.
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“We have moved past the epidemic stage and are now at a pandemic stage — a worldwide outbreak of cyberattacks and cyber vulnerabilities,” she said Wednesday. “Don’t get me wrong: terrorists, criminals, and foreign adversaries continue to threaten the physical security of our people,” she added. “But cyberspace is now the most active battlefield, and the attack surface extends into every single American home.”
Cyber crime damage is expected to exceed more than $6 trillion annually by 2021, or nearly 10 percent of the world economy, Nielson said, adding that nearly 15 percent — or 30 of the world’ 195 countries — have the ability to carry out a cyberattack, including the U.S.
In late July, DHS announced the creation of the National Risk Management Center, a new office within the department tasked with thwarting cyberattacks from foreign adversaries on the United States’ critical infrastructure, including banks, energy, and other industries.
Following some skepticism over the White House’s level of concern over election security, the move is meant to show that the Trump administration is taking outside cyberthreats on infrastructure seriously, and that it is moving to protect nongovernment entities by calling on the private sector to partner with DHS.
