{"id":23452,"date":"2020-01-15T21:36:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T21:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/15\/will-cyber-threats-from-iran-overwhelm-the-us\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:59:08","slug":"will-cyber-threats-from-iran-overwhelm-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/15\/will-cyber-threats-from-iran-overwhelm-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Will cyberthreats from Iran overwhelm the US?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

National security experts have said cyber probes and attacks by nations such as Iran are a \u201ccertainty.\u201d But what\u2019s less clear is how companies or the government should protect themselves, especially with current funding levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would not tell any organization in the private sector, if a missile was inbound, on their target … good luck, you\u2019re on your own. That\u2019s basically what we told them in terms of cyberspace, \u2018good luck you\u2019re on your own,\u2019\u201d Vincent Stewart told the House Homeland Security Committee Jan. 15. Stewart was most recently the deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command until his retirement in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts explained to the committee that government IT leaders, and specifically the Department of Homeland Security, need more resources and need to do more to protect agencies from attack. In addition, they said, companies must take the basic steps to protect themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of rising tensions with Iran, experts warned that Iran or the country\u2019s designees are likely to continue to use cyber operations to probes U.S. networks and to employ disinformation and influence campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While warnings about Iran from the government have been a welcome step, Tom Warrick, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said in his written testimony that those suggestions will likely go unnoticed by large swaths of the American public and small businesses. In its place, those entities should practice good hygiene by not clicking phishing emails and keeping systems up to date, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is going to take an entirely different and stronger approach that I would hope would be led by the White House in a way that makes improving our cyber defenses a national goal, much like civil defense was a bipartisan national goal in the 1950s,\u201d Warrick said. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy at the Department of Homeland Security until June. \u201cThis needs to be done exactly in the way we did the civil defense campaign in the 1950s, the difference then being that at nuclear attack was a horrifying possibility but a cyberattack these days from our adversaries like Iran is an absolute certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warrick added that the U.S. government\u2019s newest cyber entity, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is wholly mismatched versus the threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mismatch between what CISA has in the way of resources and what the threat is, is a strategic vulnerability to the United States homeland,\u201d he said. \u201cThe staffing disparity of what\u2019s needed to protect the country is very different. This is one of the things that I would hope this committee and your colleagues on the appropriations committee would work together to address. We have totally mismatched the idea of offense and defense because in the military realm it means one thing. It\u2019s totally different in homeland security and cyberspace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress gave CISA a funding boost this year with $2 billion for fiscal 2020, a $334 million increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\t