Schmitt Presses Defense Nominee: What Are The 'Dangers And Vulnerabilities' In Our Cyber Systems?

2 months ago

Earlier this month, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned Department of Defense Nominees on cyber security and geospatial intelligence during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Schmidt. Thank you Senator. Ms. Wilkerson, you may be aware I'm a huge supporter

00:08of NGA and the work that's being done out of NGA in St. Louis, which is my hometown.

00:16And the construction there, there's a lot of opportunities that exist, not just

00:21for our country and our national security, but also that sort of economic ecosystem that exists

00:25around that and I think can be a real catalyst for private sector development as well. But I just,

00:32because of your experience, could you just speak to the importance of geospatial

00:38intelligence in general as it relates to our national defense?

00:43Certainly. And Senator Schmidt, I appreciate your support of NGA and I'm very excited about

00:51the new facility as well. And quite frankly, as I stepped into this job, I also noted really the

00:59commitment of the entire region to really focus in on developing that ecosystem for geospatial

01:05intelligence. To me, when I think about geospatial intelligence, it really illuminates not only the

01:13when and where on the earth, right, but it's also how things are being done. And so that's

01:19where I think GEOINT really pays dividends in being able to illuminate topics that perhaps

01:26other ENTS might not be able to provide. And based on your experience, including

01:34your recent time with NGA, could you discuss a little bit the importance of integrating commercial

01:40imagery products and capabilities into our defense intelligence operations? I know there's

01:47some barriers that exist and maybe you could just sort of address that a little bit.

01:53Senator, yes, we really value, I personally do value the partnership that exists with the

01:58commercial industry in providing products that are easily shareable for the intel consumers as well.

02:08From my perspective, one of the things that we've been focused on is ensuring that we're

02:13from an ODNI and OUSD INS perspective, adhering to the direction in the recommendations that have

02:20been made with respect to commercial imagery acquisition. And so in doing so, it's been

02:25centralized. And so that centralization of that acquisition activity does help to ensure that

02:31there's a cost effective and efficient approach that is in place. I am aware that there are

02:39conversations ongoing regarding, is that the best structure? And so certainly if confirmed,

02:47I would ensure that I would take a look at all equities. I think that's important because

02:53my understanding is that despite the importance of NGA and being a major consumer of the

02:59commercial imagery, the NRO retains the responsibility to contract. Is that your

03:06understanding as well? That is exactly the arrangement. NRO has the responsibility to

03:12procure pixels and NGA has the responsibility to procure commercial analytic services. Well,

03:18you're going to have a great opportunity to look at that alignment, I think, hopefully moving

03:22forward here. I do want to address one other topic quickly on sort of the monoculture concerns that

03:28I've articulated as it relates to our cyber systems. Could you speak to a little of the

03:37potential dangers and vulnerabilities that could open up because of this sort of maybe one vendor

03:42approach or this kind of monoculture that exists in our intelligence community as it relates to

03:46cyber? And just so that I have clarification on your question, Senator, the monoculture that

03:54exists as it relates to commercial? Well, no, so there's a discussion that's going on and I think

04:00there's a little bit of a push and pull here between a bipartisan group of senators who've

04:05raised concerns about some of the hacks that have happened and the fact that we're very reliant on

04:10a single vendor. And I think it's the view of many, including me, that a multi-vendor approach

04:16might provide some additional security here and ameliorate some of the concerns and

04:21vulnerabilities. I'm just curious how you view that. So, thank you for that additional context.

04:27I really think it's incumbent upon us to ensure that we're providing vendors with the right tools

04:34and understanding of the right tools to help to protect the overall infrastructure within

04:40their purview. And so, if confirmed, this is an area that I certainly would

04:47welcome a chance to take a hard look at and understand whether or not we're giving

04:51that right information to vendors to be able to be best protected. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Schmitt Presses Defense Nominee: What Are The 'Dangers And Vulnerabilities' In Our Cyber Systems?

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