Congressional Record — Senate, S7700 (December 18, 2020)

Summary

Page S7700 of the Senate section of the Congressional Record for December 18, 2020, in interleaved columns. Mr. Portman says the cyber breach shows the Federal Government is far from handling the cyber security challenges of the 21st century, that the technique and breadth of the hack are unprecedented, and that the breach must be a wake-up call, which is his view. He recalls bipartisan cyber legislation and a Subcommittee on Investigations report and notes that hackers may still be in the system. The page also shows a quorum call and Mr. Bennet beginning remarks on the coronavirus.

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“Congressional Record — Senate, S7700 (December 18, 2020).” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-12-18-crec-2020-12-18-pt1-pgs7701-02d82040ac/, SHA-256 bc1c789e8991100252a0ebee49e65068dfc2d77783365018908679574f9108d6.

Full text

S7700 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 18, 2020
our networks as basic good cyber hy- this. This breach has to be a wake-up Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I sug-
giene was actually a security breach. call for all of us. gest the absence of a quorum.
This technique and the breadth of Over the years, I have worked across The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
this hack are both unprecedented, and the aisle with Senator PETERS, Senator clerk will call the roll.
it shows that the Federal Government CORNYN, Senator HASSAN, and others The senior assistant legislative clerk
is still far from where we need to be to on legislation to beef up our Federal proceeded to call the roll.
handle the cyber security challenges of Government cyber capacities, includ- Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I ask
the 21st century. ing the Risk-Informed Spending for Cy- unanimous consent that the order for
As the Permanent Subcommittee on bersecurity Act, the Federal System the quorum call be rescinded.
Investigations said in its investigation Incident Response Act, and the DHS The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without
and report, these alarms that we have Cyber Hunt and Incident Response objection, it is so ordered.
been raising over time are ones that we Team Act, and others. We are proud of CORONAVIRUS
should have paid attention to. In 2019, this legislation. Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, before I
last summer, Senator CARPER and I Let’s be honest. It wasn’t enough. We give my remarks, I would like to say
issued a shocking report that detailed need to do more. We need to not only that I hope the rumors are true that we
the unacceptable cyber security vul- defend our networks but go on the of- are getting close to a deal here. The
nerabilities in the Federal Govern- fense to defer a nation-state, like Rus- country needs us to reach a bipartisan
ment—vulnerabilities that may very sia, and nonstate actors from even con- deal, as we did in March, unanimously,
well have played a role in the extent of sidering a future attack like this. That when we passed the CARES Act here.
this breach. means there needs to be consequences It is time for us to do that again. In
Our report looked back at how well for cyber attacks significant enough to Colorado and all across the country
Federal agencies complied with basic prevent them from happening again cases are spiking and the economy is
cyber security standards over the past and a willingness to act preemptively slowing down. People need relief. They
decade. Every agency we reviewed when warranted. need help. I hope we will come together
failed. And we know that four of those Congress has to take a hard look at in a bipartisan way and do that.
agencies—the Department of Homeland the cyber security capabilities of our I hope that the deal is not going to
Security, the State Department, the Federal agencies. In the next Congress, come crashing down because of a dis-
Department of Agriculture, the Depart- I will be the top Republican on the agreement about what the Federal Re-
ment of Health and Human Services— Senate Homeland Security and Govern- serve’s authority ought to be under the
are among those that have been mental Affairs Committee, which 13(3) program. That is an important
breached in this current cyber attack. means I will either serve as its chair- program for the Federal Reserve to
That report from the Permanent man or ranking member, depending on help when things are really distressed
Subcommittee on Investigations made the outcome of a couple of races in in our economy—to help our small
clear that Federal agencies were a tar- Georgia. Senator PETERS will be the businesses, our State and local govern-
get for cyber criminals and other na- chair if the Democrats take the major- ments, and working families all over
tion-state adversaries. In 2017 alone, ity. I will tell you here tonight, wheth- this country.
Federal agencies reported 35,277 cyber er I am chairman in January or him, It is an authority that Donald Trump
incidents. It is the most recent data we we intend to hold indepth hearings on used—or that the Fed used while Don-
have—in 1 year. The number of cyber cyber security. With what has hap- ald Trump was President. People on
pened, we will also, of course, focus on both sides of the aisle said it was an ef-
incidents in 2019 was a little bit less,
the origin, scope, and severity of this fective authority, and if it is an effec-
28,581. But 2020 will bring what is likely
breach. tive authority for President Trump, it
the biggest, most comprehensive Actually, 3 weeks ago, even before
breach across the Federal Government should not be taken away from the
this attack was revealed, we met and Federal Reserve just because Joe Biden
in our history. decided to hold these cyber security
We also found we are not equipped to is becoming President of the United
hearings, and we are already working States.
handle this threat. Many of the agen-
on comprehensive legislation to im- So I hope that we will come to an
cies we reviewed didn’t even know prove our cyber defenses in the Federal
what applications and platforms were agreement. I expect that we will. I
Government going forward. hope it is soon. People need the help.
operating on its systems. That begs the We must now move with a renewed
question: How can you protect some- sense of purpose and urgency to learn CYBER SECURITY
thing if you don’t even know what you from this massive attack. We have to Mr. President, in the last few days we
need to protect? remove these hackers from these sys- have learned that the United States
If Federal agencies fail at meeting tems and put in place protections to was subject to one of the most brazen
basic cyber standards, there is no way prevent it from happening again. cyber hacks in history. Based on press
they are equipped to thwart the kind of As this cyber attack has made clear, reports alone, the hackers appear to
sophisticated attack that apparently we have to redouble our efforts to have breached the Department of
happened over the past several months. shore up our defenses. We are two dec- State, the Department of Commerce,
Here, the attackers were meticulous ades into the 21st century, but most of the Department of Energy, the Depart-
and had a detailed understanding of the Federal Government legacy com- ment of the Treasury, the National Nu-
how to evade intrusion detection prac- puter systems are from the 20th cen- clear Security Agency, and the Depart-
tices and technologies. And because the tury. Federal agencies are simply be- ment of Homeland Security—including
Federal agencies involved were unpre- hind the times when it comes to de- the agency responsible for our cyber se-
pared, the attackers had ample time to fending themselves against these curity.
cover their tracks, which means evalu- threats posed in cyber space. The gov- On top of that, the hackers also man-
ating the extent of the damage and ernment is trying to respond to sophis- aged to breach major American compa-
kicking them off our networks is going ticated, 21st century attacks with 20th nies like Microsoft and compromised
to be incredibly difficult and time-con- century defenses. This attack has several State governments and other
suming. shown us the consequences of that and foreign governments all at the same
Given how widespread this attack is should be the catalyst for real bipar- time in this process.
and how much wider it is expected to tisan action here in the next Congress While we are learning more about
become, it certainly seems like the to better defend networks that contain these breaches, the level of resources
Federal Government’s current cyber sensitive, personal information, and and sophistication bears all the hall-

dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
resources are going to be spread incred- other information critical to our econ- marks of Russia. Reports suggest that
ibly thin. omy, our healthcare, and the safety the hackers have been in the system
Congress and the executive branch and security of all Americans. since the spring and perhaps much
have failed to prioritize cyber security, I yield the floor. longer. According to public reports,
and now we find ourselves vulnerable The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. they may still be in our system to-
and exposed. We have to do better than TILLIS). The Senator from Ohio. night.

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