Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Rounds, Hearing to Receive Testimony on the Department of Defense's Role in Protecting Democratic Elections.

Hearing

Good afternoon.

The Cybersecurity Subcommittee meets this afternoon to receive testimony on the Department of Defense's role in protecting the U.S. election process. The witnesses are Mr. Bob Butler, Cofounder and Managing Director of Cyber Strategies, LLC; Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security; Senior Vice President of Critical Infrastructure Protection Operations for AECOM; Ms. Heather Conley, the Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic and Director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Dr. Richard Harknett, head of political science at the University of Cincinnati and a former scholar in residence at U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency; and Dr. Michael Sulmeyer, the Director of the Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.

At the conclusion of Ranking Member Nelson's comments, we will ask our witnesses to make their opening remarks. After that, we will have a round of questions and answers. There is no dispute about what Russia did during the 2016 election cycle. There is clear evidence that Russia attempted to undermine our democratic process through the hacking of independent political entities, manipulation of social media, and use of propaganda venues such as Russia Today. election systems were manipulated to change the outcome of the vote. certain election systems in 21 States.

Evidence to date indicates that no polls or State However, there was evidence of Russian probing of
The Department of Defense has a critical role to play in challenging and influencing the mindset of our cyber adversaries and defending the homeland from attacks, attacks that could include cyber attacks by other nations against our election infrastructure.

Department approaching these issues with a heightened sense of urgency. We look forward to the The threat is not going away. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency warned that Russia will seek to influence the upcoming midterm elections. that the Mexican presidential campaign as well In addition to Russian attempts to influence the elections in France and Germany last year.
The White House National Security Advisor stated

This is all Each of us on this panel has been quite vocal about the need for a strategy that seizes the strategic high ground in cyberspace. else, we need a strategy that moves out of the trenches and imposes costs on our adversaries. Whether you call it deterrence or something The lack of consequences for the countless attacks over the past decade has emboldened our adversaries and left us vulnerable to emboldened behavior.
2016 election are just the latest rung on that escalation ladder. with impunity, they will press further.
The attacks we experienced during the As long as our adversaries feel that they can act Our witnesses offer unique perspectives on the challenges we face.

We look to them to help us understand why our posture restraint has not worked, if we can reverse the damage already done, and what it will take to develop and implement a strategy that limits our exposure and imposes costs on malicious behavior.

We invited Dr. Richard Harknett to explain his theory of cyber persistence, specifically on how our failure to tailor our strategies to the uniqueness of the cyber domain limits our ability to confront challenges we face.
adversaries actively exploit us because they see great benefit and little consequence in doing so.

Dr. Harknett that the Cold War models of deterrence will not work and look forward to hearing what he believes it will take to influence the mindset of our adversaries.

In addition to his writings on cyber deterrence and election attacks, Dr. Michael Sulmeyer has focused a great deal of his research on the organizational challenges we face as a government.
We understand that Dr. Sulmeyer is working on a paper addressing some of the challenges we examined during our full committee hearings in October on the whole-of-government approach to cybersecurity.
forward to hearing more from Dr. Sulmeyer on the gaps and the seams he sees in our organizational model and what lessons we can learn from analyzing like the British.

We look Ms. Heather Conley provides an expertise in Russian politics and foreign policy. Russia has yet to face serious consequences in the cyber or other domains for its 2016 elections' interference.

We look forward to Ms. Conley's testimony on how the United States can tailor and implement these penalties and how the Department can best deter or dissuade further Russian election meddling.

We also look forward to the testimony of Mr. Bob Butler who brings extensive cyber experience in both the Department of Defense and the private sector. involved in numerous studies on the cyber deterrence, including the recent Defense Science Board Task Force on Cyber Deterrence.

Let me close by thanking our witnesses for their Mr. Butler has been willingness to appear today before our subcommittee.

Senator Nelson?

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