Senate sergeant at arms: More concerned about cyberattack than Jan. 6 repeat

Politico via MSN ^ | 6/05/21 | Ben Leonard

[Libloather]

Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson is more concerned about a cyberattack crippling the government than another Jan. 6-type assault on the Capitol, she said in an interview aired Saturday on CNN.

“Our networks ... have attempted intrusions every single day. And so, cybersecurity for me is a much greater concern than the prospect of thousands of people storming the West Terrace,” Gibson said.

Gibson’s comments come in wake of several significant cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, including a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline that crippled East Coast fuel supply last month and another on a major U.S. meat producer this week. Security analysts warned the USDA last month that ransomware could have more impact on the U.S. food supply than Covid-19 had.

Gibson said she agreed with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s statement earlier this week that the threat posed by ransomware has "a lot of parallels" to 9/11.

Gibson, who served in the military for 33 years and was a senior intelligence officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, replaced Michael Stenger, who resigned after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Gibson helped in a security review in the wake of the insurrection.

Gibson told CNN that she has a strong cybersecurity team, but still views it as a more significant concern than another Capitol siege.

“Members have sensitive information that they would not necessarily want to have disclosed that may be in documents. Much of what we do is public. And meant to be so,” Gibson said. “But I would worry about ... nation-state actors or others who might try to just really cripple the government's ability to function by locking down cybercommunications networks.”

[Libloather]

I'm calling BS.

In July 2017, Awan was arrested on federal bank fraud charges. During an 18-month investigation into alleged misconduct involving congressional computer equipment,[2] he was subject to conspiracy theories involving espionage. On July 3, 2018, federal prosecutors concluded their investigation, "publicly debunking allegations" that Awan "was a Pakistani operative who stole government secrets with cover from House Democrats".[2] On July 3, 2018, Awan pleaded guilty to having made a false representation on a home equity line of credit application.[3] On August 21, 2018, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Awan to time served and three months of supervision.[4][5]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imran_Awan

[Flick Lives]

Security analysts warned the USDA last month that ransomware could have more impact on the U.S. food supply than Covid-19 had.

—

Companies fall prey to a ransomeware attack only if two things are true. They have poor security enabling admin access to their servers and they lack secure offline backups of their data.

[piasa]

Good point.

But they’re hoping it will make a good excuse for whatever socialist plans they’re concocting to control the net.

[Old Yeller]

You KNOW a massive cyber attack is what the one world government assholes have planned next, since the plandemic is fizzling out.

[Eagles6]

Wouldn’t doubt it.

[Sirius Lee]

You KNOW a massive cyber attack is what the one world government assholes have planned next, since the plandemic is fizzling out.

That and a fake "alien invasion."

[Freee-dame]

Were there “ thousands of people storming the West Terrace“? There were hundreds of thousands of people down at the ellipse for speeches and on closed roads and the DC mall between the ellipse and the Capitol building, but were there thousands on the terraces? What exactly are the terraces?