Biden addressed the Colonial Pipeline hack a few minutes ago.
"So far there is no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved, although there is evidence that the actor's ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this."
Biden was asked, if you can't protect U.S. critical infrastructure from a criminal gang, how can you protect it from a nation-state actor?
"We can do both," he responded, "and we will."
"This is something that our administration has been tracking extremely carefully, and I have been personally briefed every day," Biden said at the top of his remarks.
"In addition to companies stepping up, we need to invest to safeguard our critical infrastructure," Biden said. "That's one of the many things my American Jobs Plan is designed to do."
Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on SolarWinds and federal cybersecurity is starting now: hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/preve…
In opening statement, ranking member Rob Portman questions why HHS didn't declare its SolarWinds breach to be a "major incident" per FISMA. He also questions why HSGAC learned from news reports that SolarWinds had hit DHS/CISA, including DHS secretary and incident responders.
In opening statement, Acting CISA Director Brandon Wales says one of CISA's top priorities this year is creating joint cyber planning office (authorized in NDAA) to strengthen public-private collaboration, which he says was key to successful SolarWinds/Exchange responses.
White House briefing starting now, with Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger.
Sherwood-Randall: "Thus far, Colonial has told us that [its pipeline] has not suffered damage and can be brought back online relatively quickly, but that safety is a priority, given that it is never before taken the entire pipeline down."
A White House-convened interagency team with DOE, CISA, FBI, DOT, Treasury, and DoD "met throughout the weekend," Sherwood-Randall said.
DHS just wrapped up a background briefing with senior officials on the department's cybersecurity agenda.
Nothing earth-shattering, but I'll share a few comments that stood out to me.
We've previously heard from Anne Neuberger that the Biden administration has an EO coming with mitigations related to the SolarWinds/Exchange vulnerabilities. Today, a senior DHS official told us that it will contain "close to a dozen actions."
DHS Sec Mayorkas will be discussing cyber tomorrow during an RSA event.
Per sr official, he will offer a "comprehensive vision" for using DHS/CISA to defend the country, incl through several "cybersecurity sprints" that he previously teased.
HSGAC Chair Gary Peters: “The process and procedures for responding to cyberattacks desperately needs to be modernized,” including by reforming FISMA and streamlining information sharing.
Peters: “It is clear from the gravity of this threat that we need to examine whether CISA, the FBI and other agencies have what they need to protect the American people.”
Interestingly, the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber disagreed with the conclusion that China didn't interfere. They put more stock in evidence showing that "Beijing preferred...Trump's defeat and the election of a more predictable member of the establishment instead."
In a separate document, DHS/CISA and DOJ/FBI say they investigated the right-wing conspiracy theories about foreign voting machine rigging and results tampering, and that they're "not credible." dhs.gov/sites/default/…