Sen. Bill Nelson re: first meeting of new Cybersecurity subcommittee

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s newly-formed subcommittee on cybersecurity convened for the first time Wednesday. The classified briefing took place earlier this afternoon in a secure room in the U.S. Capitol Building. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who was tapped to lead the panel alongside Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), issued the following statement after the meeting:
“We have to accept the fact that right now, countries like Russia and China can inflict serious damage on our critical infrastructure through cyberspace, despite our best efforts to defend ourselves. In order to protect ourselves as we build up our capabilities, we have to deter these countries by making the consequences of an attack so severe that they wouldn’t even consider attacking us in the first place.
“We have already suffered some very serious cyberattacks such as Russia’s recent interference in our elections and China and North Korea’s hacking of U.S. corporations on a near daily basis. Developing methods and plans to threaten what these countries value the most – in order to deter future attacks – is one of our top priorities.”