During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing last week, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) spoke about protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks by adversarial nations.
00:00And for your commitment to be able to be here and to be able to do the task that the nation's needs and the president's asked you to be able to do.
00:07This is a very difficult process. It's a long process. It's a stressful process.
00:11And there's 10 million forums and everyone's invading your privacy to be able to go through this.
00:16Your families have already been through a lot. It's great to be able to see all your families that are here as well.
00:20But this is a tough process. So thanks for stepping up and doing it because we need a lot of help.
00:25Mr. Caring Cross, let me start with you on this, on the cybersecurity side.
00:28In the past, last year, towards the tail end of the Biden administration,
00:32we had the largest cyber penetration in the history of our country where the Chinese invaded our telecom.
00:38And they got in all systems. They're in D.C.'s telecom system.
00:42It was a massive penetration that has actually occurred.
00:45By the way, that was when full funding was happening.
00:47I know we just had a conversation saying if you cut funding, what happens?
00:50When there was full funding, that occurred.
00:52What can we do at this point?
00:55And what would you say are your priorities stepping in to be able to protect America in our infrastructure?
01:00Well, the first thing I'd say, Senator, is in response to the first part of that,
01:07there's nothing that the president of the United States cares more about than the protection of American citizens.
01:14And I'm grateful to have his confidence and the confidence of the White House to be able to execute in this role.
01:21What you're talking about, SALT typhoon.
01:24Correct.
01:24And let me add on to their Volt typhoon, demonstrates China is without question the single biggest threat in this domain that we face.
01:36And what Volt and SALT show, and SALT was the espionage telecom hack, which is ongoing,
01:45and Volt is a pre-positioning on our critical infrastructure.
01:50And what that demonstrates, to the earlier point I was making about strategic dilemmas,
01:54is China is squatting on our critical infrastructure systems,
01:58and they have an ability to exercise that at a time and place of their choosing.
02:04And that should be unacceptable.
02:06And it is unacceptable.
02:08And so I look forward to working to do everything I can to make sure that our adversaries,
02:14our enemies, and criminals who operate in this space know that it is not a cost-free endeavor.
02:21Yeah.
02:21We're all counting on that, to be able to stay engaged.
02:25I would tell you that all of our entities come back to me with the same thing.
02:29If the Chinese were to roll in with airplanes and tanks and to be able to attack us,
02:33we expect the United States to be able to step up and do something.
02:35If they're coming in the cyber world and they're attacking us and destroying our infrastructure,
02:39we expect the United States to be able to help us engage in this.
02:41So we anticipate that.
02:44Mr. Rhodes, I want to ask you a little bit about one of the issues that's come up several times.
02:51Federal law already requires that if a federal contractor is in place or subcontractor,
02:57that they do e-verify for those individuals.
03:00We have now discovered that that was not actually occurring,
03:02that there was just kind of a check the box, did you do it?
03:05There was no verify.
03:06So it was all trust, no verify in the process.
03:08For our contractors and the subcontractors in the process,
03:12what would you do to be able to make sure that contractors and subcontractors
03:15are following the law that currently exists on hiring someone
03:21who's not legally present in the country for a federal contract?
03:23Senator, thank you for the question.
03:25I think my colleagues thank you for the question to me as well.
03:28I would take a hard look at that because I do believe in that.
03:32And so I think, you know, through the Office of Federal Procurement Policy,
03:36we'll take a look, if confirmed, at how folks are following that law.
03:41And if we need to put stricter regulations in place
03:44and prove the systems that manage that, then we should do that.
03:47Great.
03:47I appreciate that question.
03:48We will count on that.
03:50We'll do some follow-up on it back and forth.
03:51Mr. Law, I want to just highlight something.
03:54In the next four years, we have FIFA World Cup,
03:58we have America's 250th birthday, and we have the Olympics coming.
04:03Those are massive events for security.
04:07When I visited with DHS leaders two years ago, we were clearly not ready.
04:13So what has been handed to DHS is not a well-formed plan
04:16to be able to be prepared for the entire world coming here.
04:19I'm asking you, how are you going to ramp up for those massive security events?
04:23Well, thank you for the question, Senator.
04:25And we also have the Club World Cup coming up here in due course as well.
04:29I completely agree with you that the plan that we inherited
04:32to prepare for those major events was insufficient when we came in in January.
04:38And as senior counselor, I've been working with a lot of those teams
04:41to do that, recognizing where there are vulnerabilities.
04:45And, of course, as you know, you know, the president has tapped Andrew Giuliani,
04:48who is incredibly competent and capable of executing,
04:51particularly on the FIFA World Cup effort.
04:54And to the extent that there are any policy shortcomings,
04:57whether it is in the security aspect of it,
05:00countering the drone threat as well,
05:02or anything to do with the facilitation of the movement of fans,
05:06the teams, or, you know, getting, you know, immigration benefits
05:10for those to come to enjoy all those events here in our great country,
05:14I would definitely work with you if committed to help clear those up
05:18and make sure there are sound policies that make these events all very successful.
