Mazie Hirono Presses DNI Avril Haines On Alleged Russian Disinformation Campaign About Maui Wildfire

4 months ago

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) questioned Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about Russian misinformation about the Maui wildfires and the threats of other cyberattacks.

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Transcript

00:00 Chairman, Director Haynes, you have acknowledged Russian interference with our upcoming elections.

00:08 In another area, I am wondering whether the intelligence community was able to identify

00:14 Russia's use of social media to put out messages that the Maui wildfire was caused by government,

00:21 or that the Maui community should not trust FEMA. Was the intel community able to identify

00:31 Russian use of social media in this regard? And this is an important question because I can,

00:37 of course, as we experience so many more of these kinds of massive climate disasters or natural

00:48 disasters, we can expect that Russia will use social media or some other ways to create instability

00:55 and questions. Yeah, thank you very much for the question, ma'am. And I don't remember,

01:01 so we will get you an answer to that. Yeah. I know that, for example, that the

01:06 Microsoft, for example, was able to discern that Russia was doing this with regard to the

01:15 Maui wildfire. So I really would like you to address this for me. Now, we know that there's

01:20 a huge need for people to be able to work in the intel arena, in the intel environment. And so,

01:31 both of you, we know that there's a huge need for that. And for General Cruz, the Pacific

01:39 Intelligence and Innovation Initiative is working to create a local skilled workforce to meet DOD's

01:47 demand for cyber and intel professionals in Hawaii. There's a huge need in Hawaii for people with this

01:53 kind of background. How is this working? And are you also resorting to AI and other means of making

02:07 your intel collection more efficient and effective? Because there's a huge need for people

02:13 with this kind of background, but we don't have those people yet. So can you respond to those

02:19 two questions? Certainly. As mentioned, I've done several assignments to include 2016 to 2019 as the

02:26 Director of Intelligence at US Indo-PACOM and Camp Smith. And personally participated in several

02:34 recruiting events with local universities and in partnership with the National Security Agency

02:40 and DIA, lots of recruiting, even down into the high school level to build some local recruiting

02:45 and local workforce. And then in partnership with the intelligence community, working to develop

02:52 centers of academic excellence and a recruiting pool as well. So it is absolutely critical. I do

02:57 not believe we'll be able to fully man the intelligence requirements on island without

03:02 doing local recruiting and being able to develop the workforce and the local partners have just

03:07 been absolutely tremendous. So to your answer there, it's critical to do. We are investing

03:11 in additional STEM and cyber pay where those kind of skill sets are required. But to your point,

03:16 we have skill sets that we need all across the board. On the artificial intelligence question

03:21 about how do we become more efficient, I think what you'll find across the intelligence community

03:25 is that we are applying AI and in closed session, we can also talk about counter AI,

03:31 but how can we be the most effective and the most efficient? I'd be happy to walk you through

03:35 a couple of very specific examples that the Defense Intelligence Agency is currently doing.

03:39 And then right now we're looking at how do we partner with NGA, NRO, NSA, and DIA to bring

03:45 almost a system of systems to be able to cue and be much more effective and much more efficient in

03:51 how do we collect and how do we assess what we're collecting.

03:53 Thank you. Director Haynes, you acknowledge that we have critical infrastructure in the

04:00 private sector, i.e. our electrical grids that are subject to cyber attacks. And you noted that

04:07 you spent quite a lot of time in this area talking, I suppose, with the state people and the

04:13 private sector who provide these kinds of grids. And you noted that good cybersecurity practices,

04:20 such as something as relatively simple as updating the passwords would be very helpful. Do you know

04:28 if this is happening? And do you partner with, for example, the Public Utilities Commission in

04:36 the state of Hawaii and other agencies that actually regulate what these entities do,

04:43 our electrical, other power entities? But I just want to know, something as simple as updating

04:49 passwords, do you know if this is happening? Yeah. So we are not working directly with

04:56 sort of the utility companies across the United States. It's really DHS in the form of CISA and

05:02 the Department of Energy and others that are doing that. And we support their work by trying

05:06 to make sure that they have the intelligence they need to provide warning, but also then to

05:11 better understand what the questions are that are coming from utilities in this space. And my

05:16 understanding is that they are working very hard with them to improve their cybersecurity practices,

05:20 patch vulnerabilities, deal with these issues. But it is just more an observation from our

05:25 perspective that as we're looking at the attacks that are occurring, particularly against industrial

05:29 control systems in the country, that the vast, vast majority of them would have been actually

05:36 prevented if it weren't for those kinds of cybersecurity practices not being what they

05:41 need to be. And, you know, instead using default passwords, weak passwords, not patching vulnerabilities

05:49 that are publicly available and so on. So is the Department of Homeland Security and basically the

05:55 Energy Department who would be the people that I should ask? And yeah, CISA within the Department

06:00 of Homeland Security and we can give you, we can work with your staff to make sure you have,

06:06 yeah, exactly who is talking to who, that sort of thing. And if that's helpful for Hawaii. Thank

06:10 you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hirono. I will recognize Senator Scott, but I

06:17 We'll depart shortly for--

Mazie Hirono Presses DNI Avril Haines On Alleged Russian Disinformation Campaign About Maui Wildfire

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