Committee Hearings – Week of 3-19-17

Both the House and Senate will be in session this week. While health care and election cybersecurity will be the main press focus this week there are a large number of other hearings taking place. Three of those hearings may be of specific interest to readers of this blog. They will deal variously with cybersecurity and the Coast Guard.

Cybersecurity

On Wednesday the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a hearing to look at “A Borderless Battle: Defending Against Cyber Threats”. The witness list includes:

• Keith B. Alexander, IronNet Cybersecurity;

• Michael Daniel, Cyber Threat Alliance;

• Frank J. Cilluffo, George Washington University; and

• Bruce W. McConnell, EastWest Institute

I do not suspect that there will be a lot of detailed information about specific control system security issues, but there will be some discussion of cyber-physical threats and policy responses.

On Wednesday the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing to look at “The Promises and Perils of Emerging Technologies for Cybersecurity”. The witness list includes:

• Caleb Barlow, IBM Security;
• Venky Ganesan, Menlo Ventures;
• Steve Grobman, Intel Security; and
• Malcolm Harkins, Cylance Corporation

While focusing on ‘technologies’ don’t expect this hearing to get too technical. It will almost certainly contain some discussion of cyber-physical system protection but I do not expect too much focus on specific control system technology.

Coast Guard

On Wednesday the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on “State of the Coast Guard: Ensuring Military, National Security, and Enforcement Capability and Readiness”. The Commandant will be the only witness. There may be some brief discussion about the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) program enforcement, but don’t expect much detail.