On the recordDecember 18, 2013
I will follow up on what Senator Whitehouse has been talking about. Last year he and I tried to find the middle ground on this issue where Members of the Senate and the House would be willing to move forward together to try to deal with it. Largely, the potential damage and the potential danger of what the cyber threat means are both unknown and, if we do know about it, we don't quite understand what we could do about it or should do about it. So we are coming together here with Senator Blumenthal and Senator Graham to try to do what we can to have more information available as we move forward. There is no question that cyber breaches are serious. There is no question that they are a growing threat to our country's security. In my view, there is no question that it is our greatest vulnerability and a threat we might not see coming if we don't do the right things, particularly as it might relate to the critical infrastructure outside of what the government monitors. Cyber attacks by criminals, foreign intelligence, military service, and terrorists have increased in frequency and increased in what we see as the sophistication of those attacks. These are very dangerous for our country. They are certainly potentially dangerous in terms of the financial infrastructure, the critical infrastructure, the ability to defend the country.…
