Protecting America from Cyber-Attacks

As Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I often lead a group of bipartisan members of Congress on Congressional Delegations (CODEL) overseas to study policies for increasing our homeland security. This year, as we traveled to France, Poland, Estonia, and Ukraine, the overarching topic of discussion was cybersecurity and how to protect America from Putin and his cyber-attacks on the United States.

In Congress, I oversee many of our nation’s cybersecurity efforts and am briefed on current threats every week. It is clear to me our adversaries are turning digital breakthroughs into digital bombs. From Russian and Chinese hacking to brand-name breaches, our cyber rivals are overtaking our defenses. Nation-states are using cyber tools to steal our country’s secrets and to copy our intellectual property, and terrorists are abusing encryption and social media to crowd-source the murder of innocent people. We traveled to the aforementioned countries this year to see how our allies are dealing with these types of attacks.

Our first stop on the CODEL was to Paris, France where we saw the tell-tale signs of Russian interference in France’s presidential elections. While this was occurring, it is important to note that France continues to be keen on ensuring NATO and the EU strike a balance between firmness toward Moscow and keeping the door open to dialogue. To combat the cyber threats, France has set an example for other NATO allies by increasing its defense budget by roughly $1 billion per year between 2016 and 2019. As our oldest ally, it is up to our two great nations to continue to work together to advance awareness of and put an end to cyber aggression.

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