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A government shutdown has furloughed most of CISA's staff, raising concerns about US infrastructure's vulnerability to cyberattacks. With critical infrastructure at risk, the shutdown could create an opportune environment for bad actors. #cybersecurity #CISA #cyberattacks #infrastructure #shutdown
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Welcome back to the takeout. Has the
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government shutdown left critical US
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infrastructure vulnerable to cyber
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attacks? Now the cyber security and
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infrastructure security agency. It's got
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an acronym here in DC. We call it SISA
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furlowed the majority of its staff.
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Coinciding with that, interestingly, a
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law that allows and essentially
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encourages companies in the private
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sector to work together to fight cyber
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attacks expired this week. for
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information and analysis on all this.
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CBS News Homeland Security correspondent
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Nicole Skanga joins me now here at the
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family table. So
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the furlow of the SISA employees, how
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big a deal is that?
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It's a big deal, Major. We talk about
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SISA a lot because they have a very
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important job and that is to secure the
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nation's critical infrastructure. And
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what we mean by that is think about our
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water supply, think about the power
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grid, everything to our election
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systems. And right now 65% of staff are
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on furlow. Now, because what SISA does
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is so missionritical, that means roughly
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900 people are still working to defend
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the nation's cyber security. However,
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that being said, this is a uh an
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organization that is already
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understaffed and overworked. And beyond
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that, the concern here is that some of
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the functions this agency does, threat
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analysis, incident response
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coordination, communicating with our
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local state representatives on cyber
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security efforts is going to go by the
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wayside. The bottom line is the longer
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the shutdown lasts, the more at risk we
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are. And keep in mind, it's not like
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cyber threats have diminished recently.
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We continue to see ransomware attacks
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and we continue to see cyber espionage
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by nation states like China. And I would
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imagine in this environment, Nicole,
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those who watch this space are fearful
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that during a shutdown, bad actors would
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find this to be a more encouraging time
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with which to try to do destructive
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things.
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We know that bad actors look for when
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we're not looking, which is why we see
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an uptick in ransomware attacks during
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the holiday season. That's why Colonial
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Pipeline happened during a holiday
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weekend major. So that is uh a huge in
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addition to what you mentioned about uh
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this legislation that has gone without
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reauthorization by Congress.
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And what does that do very quickly?
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CISA 2015 basically allows um private
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companies to share threat information
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with the US government without fear of
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legal liability. So it encourages a see
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something say something uh attitude
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within the cyber realm. Now, that's
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important major because 85% of our US
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critical infrastructure is privately
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owned. So, when we talk about private
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companies, we're not just talking about
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Walmart. We're talking about your local
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water municipality.
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Nicole Skenu, important stuff. I
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appreciate it very, very much. Thank
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you.
#Computer Security
#Network Security
#Public Policy