Its about an hour and 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [background noises] good afternoon everyone and welcome. This is a joint hearing of two subcommittees a committee on oversight and accountability. What is the subcommittee i chaired the subcommittee on Cybersecurity Information Technology and government innovation. The other is a subcommittee to economic growth, Energy Policy and regulatory affairs. Which is chaired by my esteemed colleague from texas. Since this is a joint hearing will have Opening Statements of the chair and Ranking Member of both subcommittees. Thats a total of four Opening Statements i will tend to keep mine brief. Cybersecurity spent a major focus of our since it became a subcommittee chair and confirmed we as a nation are not prepared for the increasing the for cicada and Cyber Attacks that will be fueled by ai. Businesses and Government Entities in my district and across the country to face Cyber Attacks him and forced to pay huge sums of money and ransom the federal government itself still store Sensitive Data intensive minds of americans on century old legacy systems running on cobalt of all languages which i learned at the age of 21 over 20 years ago. Decades older than myself and chairman. Weve got a shortage across the country of 700,000 cybersecurity professionals with Job Vacancies strewn across the public and private sector. We need all hands on deck to fill the gap for thats white sponsored legislation eliminating unnecessary hurdles to see federal cybersecurity jobs, the government cannot be turning white people with much cyber skills just because they lack a fouryear degree. Cyber attacks come in different forms but today were focusing on ransom were attacks for these are intended to deny users access to files or entire Computer Systems for the perpetrators pledge to restore access of a ransom is paid off and charged additional ransom for not disclosing sensitive stolen data. These sorts of attacks are nothing new for they have existed for decades. But back then they were unsophisticated often unsuccessful in locking down systems. Immature hackers were trying to squeeze small ransoms from individual users. The field has now matured and grown. That became clear and may of 2021 when the hackers likely dn russia or Eastern Europe brought one of the major Gas Pipelines of this country to a standstill. The Colonial Pipeline went entirely offline briefly cost the federal department of transportation to declare emergency in 17 states and here in d. C. In order to keep a fuel supply lines effect when that hack happened when we saw the southeast in my home state of South Carolina that its in gass prices really start to increase and then they never went back down. The problem shows no sign of malicious actors are costly searching for errors of vulnerability at the height of covid truly demented actors targets like hospitals and schools. Even the ransom or supply chain has expanded. Hackers now off offer ransom or as a service to other criminal enterprises. The bottom line its too easy today for malicious actors to do too much damage make too much money with too few consequences. We need to engage in this fight at all level schools, hospitals, businesses cannot fight a battle alone against adversaries launching attacks from enemy nation states like russia and china and elsewhere prints going to take effective partnerships including federal Law Enforcement. That includes of figuring out how to better collect and share information about these attacks and of the attackers. As we will hear today the institutions victimized by ransom or has options but all of them are bad to either pay ransom of their unable to restore their normal operations the attackers threaten to release sensitive personal data that is installed in the case of schools and hospitals that include School Childrens education records and patient medical records but will hear today from representatives of the school and a hospital victimized by ransom or attacks per boston from cybersecurity expert whose current works include Counseling Companies that are targets and victims of these attacks i hope this hearing today will help educate us on the problem and it will serve as a step toward better addressing up her with that i ideal to the Ranking Member of the subcommittee mr. Connelly picnics think it madame chairwoman thank you for having this hearing a welcome tour witnesses. Were discussing the threats of ransom ware we cannot ignore the much greater cause by some Government Shutdown. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure will be forced to furlough more than 80 of its workforce. As we say we are concerned about cyber hacking and cyber threats. Without funding are crucial cyber defenses will be reduced and yet still hold responsibilities to respond to attacks internetworks and Critical Infrastructure. We cannot allow this to happen will be already know of the innumerable Malware Attacks costly threatening our economy, schools, Public Health, Critical Infrastructure and National Security. Ransom or is it burgeoning multibilliondollar criminal industry. In 2021 the estimated cost of ransom were damaged globally hovered around 20 billion. This year that numbers 30 billion 50 increase in just two years. The United States is a major target. Between january and december of 2022 known ransom or attacks on public and private networks in the United States increased by 47 . More troubling, these tallies include only those incense victims report. The recent resorts international hacks received considerable public attention these kinds of ransom or attacks also target Critical Infrastructure. 2021 the nicest government had to declare a regional emergency as noted madame chairwoman after the Colonial Pipeline was taken down. The largest fuel Pipeline System in the country. That instance was just one frightening reminder of what is at stake. State and local governments are particular vulnerable. They are responsible for storing much of our personally identifiable information. But they lack the cybersecurity resources protection. And funding as billion dollar conglomerates. Criminals also do not discriminate between a large metro areas and small towns. All sizes have been victims including mcallen texas, oakland, california and lowell, massachusetts. 82023 ransom or report found nearly 70 of the surveyed it leaders in state and local governments reported ransom were attacks. Just as troubling the report found educational systems are the most likely to be targeted. I ask unanimous consent madame chair to insert this report into the hearing record picnics without objection progress i think that sharper i know this firsthand from a ransom or attack in 2020 targeted the Fairfax Public School system the tenth largest School System in america which i represent. Members of this committee are well aware of how the coronavirus pandemic abruptly revealed how illprepared many state and local governments were did delivering Vital Public Services securely and remotely through their it platforms. Criminals took advantage of that in direct checks payments to families and Small Business loans and on and on. That is why during my tenure as chairman of the subcommittee which included the subcommittee we held hearings on the outdated it infrastructure raising Cyber Attacks on state and local governments. The hearing exam of the role of congress and the federal government and accelerating it modernization initiatives in response to the hearing we introduced house companion to the senate, state, local Digital Service act. This important legislation providing guidance and critically funding state and local government to form Digital Service teams focused on delivering fair effective secure public service. I certainly hope this congress will continue that work. Furthermore we help champion the bipartisan bill provided more than a billion dollars in investments to assist in public and private entities who fall victim to Cyber Attacks every year. Earlier this year the Biden Harris Administration also published its National Cybersecurity strategy which addresses these among other issues head on by laying out an action plan to disrupt ransom or criminals. It lays out four key pillars to disrupt them by one, lurching International Cooperation to disrupt the ecosystem the isolate those countries that provide safe havens. Two, investigating ransom ware crimes using Law Enforcement and other authorities to disrupt it and them. Third, bolstering Critical Infrastructure resilience to withstand such acts and forth addressing the abuse to wander ransom payment. The department of justice also continues hold ransom or criminals accountable most recently he is handling the network and more than 8. 6 million in crypto currency. Quick that is great but its a mock modern start important first steps. Much more has to be done i know will hear that from her witnesses today. I look forward to hearing the testimony working with you. Madame chairwoman and others and of course mr. Brown trying to crack and ultimately prevent ransom or attacks and i think your yield works thank you i will not recognize chairman for the purpose of this Opening Statement. Quick thank you. I do want to thank everyone for being here today as well i am grateful the subcommittee on Cyber Security are teaming up to talk about this very important problem. America relies on Technology Every day. When you rely on something when it goes down you become very vulnerable when it is gone. It has eight farreaching consequence when it is jeopardized. While ransom or attacks are digital files and hold data hostage until ransom is paid there to cost of Cyber Attacks go well beyond simply the money surrendered to perpetrators. Those wreak havoc on normal operating procedures of a company, a school, a hospital, forcing relocation of staff, lost revenue and damaged reputation per the following attack the institutions may have to completely re outfit their entire it infrastructure. Costly scrambling to redirect funds, earmarked for other investments or more investment in personnel mountain dew could get a cyber attack and were in our colleague from tennessee be . You might be making investments in teachers and other personnel to most Natural Resource thats going to be preventing new hires and making more efficient enough guilt ransom or attacks. Congress should be very concerned about the attacks where they originate from. The vast majority are coming from russia a country that could clearly does not have our best interest at heart. When these sort of attacks target essential sectors like the electric grid or Hospital System was south of high point or gbs a couple years ago they endanger Public Health safety and quite frankly put american lives at risk. We saw they can even have impacts far beyond the original attack into the larger economy again with Colonial Pipeline that reverberated and was very dangerous and very chilling for it as our world becomes more reliant on technology and unfortunately the opportunities for bad actors to use that technology for their own monetary political gain become more and more abundant. But no matter what the size of the attacker must prevent hackers from being able to use ransom or two up in american institutions and risk our nations prosperity and health and american lives but im grateful for her witnesses who are here today to share their story to help us examine the ongoing threat of ransom or attacks. During this hearing i hope to explore the role of government in helping prevent further attacks and punishing those that would go after our Critical Infrastructure. Where the governments providing resources for private organizations undergoing attacks of learning how to better protect our own systems i look forward to discussing potential ways congress can enable the Cybersecurity InfrastructureSecurity Agency the fbi and other federal agencies to better protect American People correct statement. And Ranking Member and thank thu to the witnesses. An issue threatening americans far too frequently, ransom or attacks. Criminals both foreign and domestic use ransom or to target everything and everyone private businesses, state and local government, hospitals, School Districts, and Critical Infrastructure. We have seen these attacks disrupt access to primary health care and Safety Net Services for our nations most vulnerable. But before i go any further we cannot sit at this hearing without addressing the terrible dangers we face with intending republican Government Shutdown. A Government Shutdown much like eight ransom or attack would be dangerous, destructive, and disastrous. The cybersecurity and infrastructure Security Agency, the agency that leads federal cybersecurity efforts as a National Coordinator for Critical Infrastructure security and resilience would have to furlough 80 of its employees as a result of a republican shutdown. We are talking thousands of critical workers, people with families and that is just one agency. The department of justice, the Agency Responsible for investigating and taking on criminal ransom were networks would also be forced to furlough thousands of employees. With a shut down extreme republican members would undercutorganization state and l governments relying on federal funds to prevent the crippling ransom or attacks we are discussing in this very hearing. And those late fees, they add up. In my home state ran some ware thieves targeted the Ohio Employment system in july preventing thousands of ohioans from receiving benefits and in march the lakeland county Lakeland CommunityCollege Next Door to my district was victim of cyberattack that compromised data of nearly 3,000 individuals. Now the Bidenharris Administration has made defending against these kinds of attack a top priority. Thanks to the bipartisan bill, the administration is currently providing 1 billion in cybersecurity grants to state, local and territory governments to build the Cyber Capabilities that they need but on sunday, at 12 01 a. M. , these dollars are at risk of in the making it out at all. And with that, madame chair, i yield back. Our second witness is dr. Lacy at Judson Independent School district. Our last witness today is mr. Sam ruben, Vice President and global head of operations at palo alto. Welcome, everyone. We are pleased to have you this afternoon. Pursuant to committee 9g, witnesses will please stand and raise their right hands. All right, do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that youre about the give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to help you god. Let the record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you. Let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statement and theyll appear in full in the hearing record, limit our oral introductory statements to 5 minutes, as reminder please press the microphone so it is on and members can hear you for the past 3 years ive been a senior director after cyber and helped enhance Cybersecurity Programs through development and implementation of Risk Management strategies. Between my time, i supported numerous organizations with the preparation, response and recovery from various Cyber Incidents including Ransomware Attacks. Some including leading recovery for