Hearing: Cybersecurity Research and Development: Challenges and Solutions
Hearing: Cybersecurity Research and Development: Challenges and Solutions
Hearing: Cybersecurity Research and Development: Challenges and Solutions
AND DEVELOPMENT:
CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
HEARING
BEFORE THE
FIRST SESSION
Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY
HON. THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky, Chair
JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois SCOTT PETERS, California
DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona DEREK KILMER, Washington
EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas
SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH
HON. LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana, Chair
STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
MO BROOKS, Alabama ZOE LOFGREN, California
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut
JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas
(II)
CONTENTS
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Page
Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2
Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3
Opening Statements
Witnesses:
Mr. Michael Barrett, Chief Information Security Officer, PayPal, Inc. .............. 80
Dr. Frederick R. Chang, President and Chief Operating Officer, 21CT, Inc. ..... 81
Ms. Terry Benzel, Deputy Director Cyber Networks and Cyber Security, USC
Information Sciences Institute ............................................................................ 83
(III)
IV
Page
Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record
HOUSEOF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY,
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittees met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in Room
2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Thomas Massie
[Chairman of the Subcommittee on Technology] presiding.
(1)
2
LAMAR S, SMITH, Te)(8S EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Te)(u
CHAIRMAN RANKING MEMBER
WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6301
1202) 225-6371
www.science.hou$e.gov
Witnesses
Ms. Terry Benzel, Deputy Director, Cyber Networks and Cyber Security, University of Southern
California Information Sciences Institute
3
Purpose
On Tuesday, February 26, 2013, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's
Research and Technology Subcommittees will examine cybersecurity research and development
activities, including standards development and education and workforce training, and how they
align with current and emerging threats. The hearing will also review the Cyhersecurity
Enhancement Act of 2013 (H.R. 756) which reauthorizes cybersecurity programs at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Witnesses
Overview
Information technology (IT) has evolved rapidly over the last decade, leading to markedly
increased connectivity and productivity. The benefits provided by these advancements have led
to the widespread use and incorporation of information technologies across major sectors of the
economy. This level of connectivity and the dependence of our critical infrastructures on IT
have also increased the vulnerability of these systems. Recent reports of cyber criminals and
nation-states accessing sensitive information and disrupting services in both the public and
private domains have risen steadily, heightening concerns over the adequacy of our cybersecurity
measures. GAO found that the number of incidents reported by federal agencies has increased
782 percent from 2006 to 2012. J This dramatic increase is attributed in part to the proliferation
and increased sophistication of hacking and cyber attack technology.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, Federal agencies spent $8.6 billion in fiscal
year 2010 on cybersecurity and the Federal government has spent more than $600 billion on
information technology in the last decade. In addition, the Federal government funds more than
$400 million in cybersecurity research and development each year.
1 GAO.13.187, Cybersecurity, National Strategy, Roles, and Responsibilities Need to Be Better Defined and More
Effectively Implemented; http://www.gao.gov/assetsJ660/652170.pdf, February 2013
4
The National Science Foundation and the National Institute ofStandards and Technology
NSF is the principal agency supporting unclassified cybersecurity research and development as
well as technical education. NSF provides the largest federal investment in cyber-related
research and development activities.
NSF has also made significant investments in cybersecurity education and workforce. The
Scholarship for Service program provides awards to increase the number of students
entering the computer security and information assurance fields, and to increase the capacity
of institutions of higher education to produce professionals in these fields. NSF also offers
Advanced Technological Education grants educating technicians for high-technology fields
with a focus on two-year colleges.
NIST's core cybersecurity focus areas include: research, development, and specification;
secure system and component configuration; and assessment and assurance of security
properties of products and systems.
Title III of the E-Government Act (PL 107-347), entitled the Federal Infonnation Security
Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), tasked NIST with developing cybersecurity standards,
guidelines, and associated methods and techniques for use by the Federal Government.
The Administration also tasked NIST in April 2011 with leading the National Strategy for
Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), an initiative focused on establishing identity
solutions and privacy-enhancing technologies to improve the security and convenience of
sensitive online transactions.
Cybersecurity research and development efforts include working on the prevention of cyber
attacks, detecting attacks as they are occurring, responding to attacks effectively, mitigating
severity, recovering quickly, and identifying responsible parties.
2
5
Standards Development
The Subcommittees will examine NIST's current and future role in the development of
benchmarks, guidelines, and standards for cybersecurity, in conjunction with other government
agencies and the private sector.
Agency Coordination
Since 1991, Federal agencies have been required to set goals, prioritize investments, and
coordinate activities in networking and information technology research and development. The
Subcommittees will explore what measures have been taken to improve the coordination of
federal cybersecurity research and development efforts and the best approach to improve the
coordination of private sector critical infrastructure and network cybersecurity.
H.R. 756, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of2013, coordinates research and related activities
conducted across the Federal agencies to better address evolving cyber threats. By strengthening
agency coordination and cooperation on cybersecurity research and development efforts, the
legislation addresses certain critical aspects of our nation's overall cybersecurity needs.
The bill is identical to legislation in the I 12th Congress, H.R. 2096, which passed the House by a
vote of 395-1 O.
On February 12th, President Obama signed an executive order (EO) on cybersecurity for
critical infrastructure. Among other things, the EO encourages information sharing between
public and private sectors and directs NIST to lead the development of a framework to
reduce cyber risks to critical infrastructure. NIST is instructed to work with industry to
identify existing voluntary consensus standards and industry best practices to incorporate
into the framework. The Subcommittees will examine NIST's current and future role in
carrying out this EO.
3
6
We convene the first hearing of the Technology Subcommittee in the 113th Con-
gress, held jointly with my colleagues on the Research Subcommittee. This Sub-
committee sits at the intersection of technology and innovation, and is uniquely po-
sitioned to address topics affecting competitiveness of emerging high-growth indus-
tries. I look forward to learning from our witnesses today about cybersecurity re-
search and development challenges, and I look forward to working with my col-
leagues to determine how we can eliminate barriers to entrepreneurship in our
country going forward. In these difficult times, it is important that we continue to
empower our nation’s innovators to maintain our economic competitiveness.
7
The preamble to the Constitution states that one of the primary responsibilities
of our federal government is to ‘‘provide for the common defense.’’ More than two
hundred years later, the meaning has changed but the task remains the same.
National defense in the digital age no longer just means protecting ourselves with
arms against enemies who attack with traditional weapons. It now means protecting
America from enemies who launch cyber attacks against our computers and net-
works.
8
Cyber attacks against U.S. government and private sector networks are on the
rise. In the last few weeks, some of America’s largest companies have been hacked.
Even the most sophisticated companies can be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Recent
targets include Apple, Facebook, Yahoo! the New York Times and the Wall Street
Journal.
Various agencies of the federal government also have been the target of attacks
and attempted attacks. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that foreign governments
may be among those responsible.
Protecting America’s cyber systems is critical to our economic and national secu-
rity. Americans deserve better protection and the federal government can help make
sensitive information more secure.
This challenge requires a thorough and comprehensive effort in both the public
and private sectors. Private companies are increasing their investment in
cybersecurity. Congress should support those efforts.
Only Congress can provide the incentives and protections that would permit nec-
essary information sharing among companies, and more importantly, between pri-
vate companies and the federal government.
Today’s hearing examines an important step that we can take to foster the kind
of cooperation that this challenge requires. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, in-
troduced by Committee Members Michael McCaul and Daniel Lipinski, coordinates
research and development activities to better address evolving cyber threats. The
legislation promotes much-needed research and development to help create new
technologies and standards that better protect America’s information technology sys-
tems.
Cyber attacks threaten our national and economic security. To solve this problem,
America needs a solution that involves the cooperation of many public and private
sector entities. The McCaul-Lipinski legislation helps foster such an effort, which
will make our computer systems more secure.
I hope we can learn how to improve the bill today and quickly advance it through
this Committee.
9
Thank you, Chairman Massie for holding this joint hearing on cybersecurity, and
thank you to our witnesses for being here today. Before I begin, I’d like to say that
I am pleased to be the new Ranking Member of the Technology Subcommittee. As
a longtime educator, I am a big believer in the power of scientific innovation. Mr.
Chairman, I am looking forward to working with you this Congress to help enable
innovation that creates jobs and makes our nation more secure.
Today’s hearing is a perfect example of the work this Subcommittee can do to bol-
ster national security. Cyber crimes are ever-increasing. In fact, the number of at-
tacks reported by federal agencies increased by 782 percent between 2006 and 2012.
The threats to federal systems and our critical infrastructure are not only growing
in number, but in the level of sophistication.
Over the last month alone, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The
Washington Post, Twitter, and Facebook have all confirmed that they have been the
target of sophisticated cyber attacks. These crimes may include identity theft, intel-
lectual property theft, service disruptions, and even espionage.
We’re beginning to suffer the costs of cybercrime. A recent study found that
cybercrime now costs a U.S. business $8.9 million on average per year. The problem
is so pervasive that security experts now joke that there are only two types of Amer-
ican companies these days: those that have been hacked and those that don’t know
they’ve been hacked.
Earlier this month, the President signed an executive order that begins the proc-
ess of strengthening our networks and critical infrastructure against cyber attack
by increasing information sharing and establishing a framework for the develop-
ment of standards and best practices. But the President also acknowledged that
Congress must act to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.
The bipartisan legislation introduced by our colleagues Mr. McCaul and Mr.
Lipiniski, and under consideration today, should be part of this comprehensive pack-
age. I am looking forward to hearing any recommendations our witnesses might
have about how to improve the legislation. Additionally, I hope to hear more from
our witnesses about their thoughts on the role the executive order outlines for NIST.
In the past, Congress has asked NIST to bring the private sector together to accel-
erate the development of voluntary standards. It seems appropriate that NIST be
tasked with a similar role in cybersecurity—especially in light of their expertise in
this field.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I did not mention the potential impact sequestration will
have on our ability to deter, defend, and recover from cyber attacks. In a letter to
appropriators, the National Science Foundation indicated that ‘‘vital investments in
research and development would be jeopardized’’ and that one of the areas that
could be impacted by sequestration is research into advances in cybersecurity.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate plays
a large role in the development and deployment of cybersecurity technologies. The
Directorate has indicated that under sequestration they will have to cut their
cybersecurity research by 30 percent, eliminating research in data privacy, identity
management, cybersecurity forensics, and security for cloud based systems.
The need to invest in research and development is critical as cyber threats con-
tinue to grow and evolve. I hope we will not let sequestration delay and derail these
essential investments.
11
I want to thank both Chairman Massie and Chairman Bucshon for holding this
hearing to examine the serious cybersecurity challenges faced by our nation. In par-
ticular, I look forward to hearing feedback from our witnesses on H.R. 756, The
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, that I recently reintroduced along with Mr.
McCaul.
I echo my colleagues’ remarks about the nature and severity of the challenges we
face in cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors. Four years ago when
I began working on this legislation I said that I had no doubt that our use of the
Internet and other communication networks would continue to grow and evolve, and
that threats from individual hackers, criminal syndicates, and even other govern-
ments would grow and evolve too.
Today it remains difficult to imagine just how much more we will simultaneously
benefit from, and be made more vulnerable by, information technology. Hacking is
no longer just the realm of computer whizzes. Today, anyone can ‘‘rent’’ a botnet
or gain access to other sophisticated hacking tools with just a few key strokes and
less than a hundred dollars.
Cybercrime threatens our national security, our critical infrastructure, businesses
of all sizes, and every single American. As such, reducing our risk and improving
the security of cyberspace will take the collective effort of both the Federal govern-
ment and the private sector, as well as scientists, engineers, and the general public.
With respect to that collective effort, I need to emphasize the importance of re-
search into the social and behavioral aspects of cybersecurity. People are perhaps
the most significant part of our IT infrastructure, but they are also the ‘weakest
link.’ Many cyber attacks are successful because of human error—bad cyber hy-
giene—such as unwittingly opening a malicious email. Having the most sophisti-
cated security systems available won’t make any difference if users don’t change fac-
tory-set default passwords or they set easy to crack passwords. Understanding the
human element and educating users to practice good cyber hygiene is necessary to
combating threats and reducing risk.
Mr. McCaul and I are hopeful that our R&D bill will be part of a comprehensive,
bipartisan cybersecurity bill. Previous efforts to move a larger bill have stalled over
some significant policy disagreements, but I am hopeful that we will be able to re-
solve our differences and I look forward to working with both my colleagues and the
Administration to ensure the development of a strong cybersecurity strategy this
Congress.
However, I am also concerned that top line cuts to our federal R&D budgets will
have a negative impact on any long-term cybersecurity strategy. So we must also
take actions to mitigate the impact of those cuts.
Today, we will hear from witnesses who are actively engaged in efforts to improve
the security of our digital infrastructure. I look forward to their valuable insight
into the challenges we face in tackling this complex issue and the role of
cybersecurity R&D and education in any comprehensive solution.
16
result in many new benefits to both our customers and the Internet
overall.
PayPal was also one of the cofounders of the FIDO Alliance,
which is intended to address the lack of interoperability among
strong authentication solutions, as well as the problems users face
with creating and remembering multiple usernames and pass-
words. By giving the option to replace passwords with authentica-
tion methods embedded in hardware, it can be used in biometric
tools such as fingerprint scanners, voice and facial recognition, or
more traditional security methods. Our goal is to provide an easier
and safer solution to every company, vendor, and organization that
needs to verify a user’s identity.
Although it is the responsibility of industry leaders like PayPal
to ensure the safety and security of our platforms and our users,
federal policymakers have an important role to play in creating a
secure Internet and mobile ecosystem. What we have found from
our years of combating cybercrime is that quantifying the forecast
is difficult, if not impossible, because many incidents are not re-
ported. Estimates of the magnitude and scope of cybercrime vary
widely, making it difficult for policymakers and industry to fully
understand the problem and the level of effort that will be needed
to combat it.
We recommend that policymakers fund some research that helps
fill some of the information gaps that currently exist as it relates
to cybercrime. We believe that this research will be a critical tool
in arming policymakers, law enforcement, and industry against the
growing threat of cybercrime.
In addition, PayPal appreciates the bipartisan efforts of the Com-
mittee to create a legislative framework that creates innovative so-
lutions to issues such as cybersecurity R&D, education and work-
force training, and standards development. Importantly, it achieves
these ends without creating undesired side effects, and we welcome
the opportunity to work with the Committee on these priorities.
To conclude, it is our hope that in the years to come the chal-
lenges we face today from cybercrime will be a faint memory. But
until then, PayPal is committed to partnering with policymakers
and private and public stakeholders to ensure that everything we
do in our power to create an ecosystem that is safe and secure.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify before the Committee and
I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Barrett follows:]
19
TESTIMONY OF
Michael Barrett
Vice President, Information Risk Management
Chief Information Security Officer
PayPal
eBay Inc.
BEFORE THE
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Subcommittee on Research and Snbcommittee on Technology
PRESENTED
Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2318
February 26, 2013
10:00 AM
20
Testimony of
Michael Barrett
Vice President, Information Risk Management
Chief Information Security Officer
Pay Pal
eBay Inc.
Before the
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Subcommittee on Research and Subcommittee on Technology
Presented:
Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2318
February 26, 2013
10:00 AM
2
21
payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world's
largest ticket marketplace, and eBay classifieds sites. And through our company GS!
Commerce, eBay Tnc. has become the leading provider of eCommerce and interactive marketing
services for many of the world's premier brands and retailers, such as Toys R Us, Ralph Lauren
and Dick's Sporting Goods.
Additionally, eBay Inc. is actively working to revolutionize global commerce with the
recent additions of mobile technology companies WHERE, Milo, Zong and others combined
with the seasoned services of eBay Marketplaces Mobile and PayPal Mobile. In fact, in 2012,
eBay Inc. generated nearly $14 billion in global mobile sales. PayPal Mobile also experienced
great popularity across the globe, with over 17 million consumers in over 80 markets worldwide.
Our global consumers bought everything from cars, clothing, shoes, electronics, and toys from
eBay and PayPal's mobile applications.
eBay Inc. is a very diverse family of businesses supporting millions of users ranging from
individual consumers to merchants and retailers of every shape and size. As enablers of
commerce, eBay Inc. and PayPal facilitate consumers buying just about anything whether on or
offline. We enable consumers to pay online, pay with a phone, pay with a card from your wallet
or pay with nothing but a phone number and a secure pin. All sustainable 21 st Century retail
business models, large and small alike, will use the Internet and mobile technology tools and it is
our hope to be their partner in that venture.
With this growing trend in mind, eBay Inc. and PayPal recognize that our success and the
success of our retail partners are dependent on our ability to engender consumer trust and
confidence. It is our belief that without trust, the Internet and mobile marketplaces will fail to
reach their full potential. Security and trust are mutually reinforcing. It is hard to build
consumer trust without ensuring the safety and security of a consumer's personal information,
whether it is financial data, transaction history, etc.
To foster that trust, we've worked to meet customer expectations with every product we
offer. PayPal and its "shop without sharing" design, was created to offer a secure alternative to
3
22
traditional payment systems. Security is one of the fundamental building blocks of the PayPal
services. The beauty of PayPal is that it allows consumers to send money or pay for a good or
service without ever having to expose their credit card or bank account information to merchants
or other PayPal users. It allows consumers to shop online or on their mobile device without
having to share the most sensitive personally identifiable information, financial and banking
information. Not only does this security-enhancing technology allow consumers to fully enjoy
the convenience of online and mobile commerce without worrying about safety and security
concerns, but it also allows merchants to receive payments without the cost and potential liability
associated with processing and securing financial information.
However, as the Internet and mobile platforms become more attractive to consumers and
businesses alike, it also attracts criminals and bad actors that are looking to profit by exploiting
Internet companies and users. And unfortunately, their behavior has furthered the perception of
certain individuals that the Internet and mobile platforms are unsafe and therefore unsuitable for
everyday use. Companies like eBay and PayPal will continue to fight back against this
perception and work to protect the safety and security of our platform and our users. However, as
cybercriminal activities slowly get worse, we believe that traditional technical measures alone
cannot significantly move the trend line in a positive direction and that there are concrete steps
that industry and policymakers should take to significantly mitigate the impact of cybercrime and
reduce its frequency.
I would like to take the next few minutes to highlight some of the successful security-
related programs that my team has engaged in over the last few years and also recommend some
areas that would benefit from government engagement.
On a daily basis, Internet companies, including PayPal, run into sites that have been
compromised and are being used as "phishing" or "spoof' sites, which are intended to defraud
4
23
Internet companies and their users by various means. With the rise of the social Internet and the
ubiquity of e-commerce, spammers and phishers have a tremendous financial incentive to
compromise user accounts, enabling theft of passwords, bank accounts, credit cards, and more.
Unfortunately, email is very easy to spoof and criminals have found this activity to be an
opportunity to exploit user's trust of well-known brands. By simply inserting the logo of a well-
known brand into an email, spoofers give their emails instant legitimacy with many users.
Recognizing the growing threat from these types of behaviors, PayPal, in coordination
with other industry partners, launched a program over a year ago called DMARC, which is
meant to increase email trust and combat rampant email deception and fraud, such as spam and
phishing. DMARC, which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting &
Conformance, builds on previous email authentication advancements, with strong protection of
the author's address and creating a feedback loop from receivers back to legitimate email
senders. DMARC standardizes how email receivers perform email authentication using the
well-known Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM)
mechanisms. This means that senders will experience consistent authentication results for their
messages at AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and any other email receiver implementing DMARC.
The program removes the guesswork from the receiver's handling of any failed messages,
limiting or eliminating the user's exposure to potentially fraudulent and harmful messages.
DMARC also provides a way for the email receiver to report back to the sender about messages
that pass and/or fail DMARC evaluation.
• Protected 60 percent of the world's email boxes or 1.976 billion of the estimated 3.3 billion
email boxes worldwide. Protected 80 percent of US typical consumer mailboxes;
Has been adopted by the world's largest consumer email providers- AOL, Comcast, Google,
Mail.ru, Microsoft, NetEase, Xs4AIl, and Yahoo!;
• Can claim 50 percent of the top 20 sending domains publish a DMARC policy, with 70
percent of those domains asserting a policy that directs receivers to take action against
unauthenticated messages; and
5
24
The Internet, especially with recent rapid mobile and cloud expansion, exposes users and
enterprises, more than ever before, to fraud. We at PayPal believe it is critical to know who
you're dealing with on the Internet at all times. Therefore, my team has also been very engaged
in efforts to create a reliable identity management system to promote identity and stronger
authentication. As a company that facilitates secure online and mobile financial transactions, it
is critical that we have the ability to authoritatively authenticate our users. We strongly support
efforts to create a workable "Identity Ecosystem" - where stakeholders work to protect
individuals, businesses, and public agencies from the high costs of cyber crimes, like identity
theft and fraud, while simultaneously helping to ensure that the Internet continues to support
innovation and a thriving marketplace of products and ideas. To accomplish this goal, we have
participated in two different programs, The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in
Cyberspace (NSTIC) and The Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance.
As many of you know, NSTIC is a White House initiative, led by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, which is intended to work collaboratively with the private sector,
advocacy groups, public sector agencies, and other organizations to improve the privacy,
security, and convenience of sensitive online transactions. The program has been mostly led by
the private sector, in partnership with the federal government, consumer advocacy organizations,
privacy experts, state and local agencies, and others. Organizations representing 18 different
business and infrastructure sectors and 70 different nonprofit and federal advisory groups have
participated in the development of the "Strategy".
NSTIC differs from past efforts to encourage trusted IDs in several ways. From the
outset, the NSTIC has involved the private sector as a partner in the effort. For instance,
members of my team have served as significant contributors to the Identity Ecosystem Steering
Oroup (IDESO) and Brett McDowell of PayPal current chairs the IDESO Management Council.
6
25
In our work at the lDESG we've worked diligently to ensure that the rules and practices put in
place do actually fulfill the promise ofNSTIC.
PayPal was also one of the co-founders of The Fast Identity Online (FlDO) Alliance.
Formed in July 2012, with Lenovo, Nok Nok Labs, Infineon and others, the goal of the Alliance
is to address the Jack of interoperability among strong authentication devices as well as the
problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The
FlDO Alliance plans to change the nature of authentication by developing specifications that
define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that supplant reliance on passwords to
securely authenticate users of online services. This new standard for security devices and
browser plugins will allow any website or cloud application to interface with a broad variety of
existing and future FlDO-enabled devices that the user has for online security.
How it works is that our protocol-based model will automatically detect when a FIDO-
enabled device is present, meaning that end users from the banking, corporate, public sector or
consumer arenas could be given the option to replace passwords with authentication methods
embedded in hardware. It can be deployed in biometric tools such as fingerprint scanners, voice
and facial recognition technology, or more traditional security aids such as one-time password
(OTP) tokens or trusted platform models.
The FlDO Alliance is a private sector and industry-driven collaboration to combat the
very real challenge of confirming every user's identity online. By giving users choice in the way
they authenticate and taking an open-based approach to standards, we can make universal online
authentication a reality. We wanted to provide an easier and safer solution to every company,
vendor, and organization that needs to verify user identity.
7
26
In cooperation with a number of large Internet companies and major web browser
makers, PayPal participated in an education campaign in 20 I 0 to encourage our customers to
upgrade their web browser to the latest and most secure version.
Although it is the responsibility of industry leaders, like PayPal, to ensure the safety and
security of our platforms and our users, federal policymakers have an important role to play in
creating a secure Internet and mobile ecosystem. Here are some of our recommendations for
areas where the federal government, and specifically Congress, can lend a helping hand.
As you know, the Internet offers tremendous benefits and efficiencies to businesses and
consumers and over the years this has led to a burgeoning Internet-enabled industry. However,
as online business transactions increase and more and more consumers adopt Internet and mobile
services, cyber criminals are given greater access to business assets and personal information
than ever before, opening up risks for intellectual property theft, identity theft, and other crimes.
What we have found from our years of combatting cybercrime, is quantifying the full
cost is difficult if not impossible because many incidents are not reported. Estimates of the
8
27
magnitude and scope of cybercrime vary widely, making it difficult for policymakers and
industry to fully understand the severity of the problem and the level of effort that will be needed
to combat it. However, based on recent studies, cybercrime is definitely a growing problem. For
instance, a 2011 government-sponsored study in the United Kingdom found that cybercrime cost
£27 billion (about $44 billion) in the UK alone, with businesses bearing three-quarters of that
cost. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 22% more
self-reported cybercrime complaints in 2009 than the previous year - and that the dollar value
of these incidents was skyrocketing, up III % in 2009 to more than $550 million. It's clear that
business is currently sustaining significant losses to cybercrime, but until we know how much
money is being lost, where the money is going and whether or not the responsible parties can be
held accountable, it will be hard to create a framework that really addresses the problems.
It is our recommendation that policymakers sponsor research that helps to fill in some of
the information gaps that currently exist as it relates to cybercrime. We believe that this research
will be a critical tool in arming policymakers, law enforcement and industry against the growing
threat of cybercrime.
The difference between the effectiveness of law enforcement in the physical world and
on the Internet could not be more striking. In the real world even minor crimes such as
vandalism and burglary resulting in relatively low dollar losses merit at least a visit by a police
officer, while online crimes exceeding $25,000 frequently go uninvestigated, much less
prosecuted. We believe that this unfortunate reality is mainly due to insufficient funding for
cybercrime law enforcement and a general lack of trained cyber experts within law enforcement
and policy circles.
9
28
that policymakers look to find ways to help law enforcement agencies address these resource
needs.
The convention allows nations to cooperate with each other in investigating cases of
cybercrime. It permits one state to request that a second state preserves and supplies the
necessary data needed to support a particular investigation. However, the mechanisms used to
request the data are antediluvian: Multi-Lateral Assistance Treaties (MLATs), and "Letters
Rogatory". In all of the cases where we have worked with multi-country investigations, we have
never witnessed a case in which the data has been returned to the requesting law enforcement
agency in under three months. We have found that six months is more common, and we have
heard of cases where the data has been returned more than two years after it was originally
requested. Given the speed at which cyber attacks move, this slow response time effectively
hobbles the investigating law enforcement agency and frequently cripples investigations. During
this time, the criminals are allowed to keep victimizing citizens and law abiding organizations.
10
29
We agree that there needs to be some level of supervision, and approval, such that rogue
officers (or worse) cannot request arbitrary infonnation from another state, without good
purpose. But, in the age of the Internet, most workflow functions can be highly automated. The
technology to do this exists, and is readily available. We recommend that policymakers consult
our domestic law enforcement organizations who best understand how to fix current practices
and make cross border enforcement a more coordinated and streamlined process.
In our testimony we have highlighted a number of cases where we have partnered with
private and public entities to find solutions to the growing threat of cybercriminal activities.
Although we have been very successful in some of these cases, we believe that we could
accomplish more by working with policymakers to remove some of the barriers that prevent
private industry from working together to protect the Internet ecosystem.
For instance, as I testified, our DMARC program has been very successful in stopping
unauthenticated emails from reaching inboxes. However, the DMARC program is not
necessarily as effective as it could be because of the limitations the current statute places on
private-to-private information sharing, even in cases of security. Not only does DMARC
provide a way for email providers to tell whether or not an email is authentic, but it also provides
a way for the email receiver to report back to the sender about messages that pass andlor fail
DMARC evaluation. This reporting is a matter of common sense. If cybercriminal is using a
company's trademark and brand in an unauthorized manner, we believe that company would
want to know, and should know, where that email is coming from in a timely manner so that they
11
30
can work with the proper authorities to take down the rogue website. Unfortunately, some
current interpretations of ECPA prohibit voluntary information sharing of this nature between
private companies. Unfortunately, instead of helping to protect companies and consumers from
bad actors like its original intent, these privacy laws are serving to immunize illegal actions from
further scrutiny. We ask that policymakers review ECPA and other potentially outdated laws
that can prohibit companies from meaningfully protecting the security and privacy rights of their
users and themselves.
It is clear from a variety of sources, that most consumers have little idea how to protect
themselves online. However, it is also clear that the problem is much larger than the scope of
work happening today. There are many studies that show the majority ofInternet users are both
afraid of the risk of using the Internet, and simultaneously don't have the information needed to
protect themselves online.
While the education efforts from organizations like NCSA are helpful, they are simply
not at the scale needed to help hundreds of millions of Internet users across the United States.
This area needs to experience significant increase in investment from both private industry and
government stakeholders.
12
31
When we look at other forms of technical innovation throughout history, we can clearly
see that these innovations were coupled with attendant public policy, self-regulation and public
reaction that were instructive for understanding the various roles and responsibilities that each
stakeholder had to play in order to maintain the safety and benefits of the technology. For
instance, today, when you ask an individual the parties responsible for ensuring the safety on our
highways, most people would probably be able to instinctively respond with the names of a few
ofthe responsible stakeholders, such as motorists, local and state law enforcement, state and
federal departments of transportation, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Most Americans know this because there is a solid framework that was created and implemented
years ago that is intended to keep motorists safe while traveling on our nation's highway system.
However, when you ask that same question, but replace highways with the Internet, the
same individual would most likely fail to give a response. Unfortunately, we as a country have
failed to adopt a framework for the Internet and mobile ecosystem that clearly lays out the
various stakeholders and jurisdictions involved and the roles that each stakeholder has to ensure
users safety while they are traveling on the World Wide Web.
In light of these policy recommendations, I did want to take a few minutes to praise the
work that the House Science, Space & Technology Committee has done to address some of the
cybersecurity challenges facing our nation. PayPal appreciates the bipartisan efforts of the
Committee over the past few years to create a legislative framework that creates some innovative
13
32
solutions to issues such as cybersecurity R&D, education and workforce training, and standards
development. Importantly, it achieves these ends without creating undesired side-effects.
In particular, we are very appreciative and supportive of the following provisions within
the legislation and would welcome the opportunity to work with Members of the Committee on
these priorities:
Conclusion
To conclude, Pay Pal is committed to providing our customers with the safety and security
that they not only deserve, but expect. We recognize that security is a key component of their
experience and the trust they place with us. As technology changes, as the world changes, the
security measures that we adopt will continue to change. However, my role is to keep up with
these rapidly evolving trends and not only surpass the bar that our consumers and employees
challenge us to reach on a daily basis, but work to find solutions that will benefit not just PayPal
but the entire Internet and mobile ecosystem. It is our hope that in the years to come the
challenges we face from cybercrime will be a faint memory. But until then, PayPal is committed
14
33
to partnering with policymakers and private and public stakeholders to ensure that we do
everything in our power to create an ecosystem that is safe and secure.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify before the Committee, and I look forward to your
questions.
15
34
Written Testimony of
21CT,lnc.
Before the
Hearing on
February 26,2013
You may not have heard of my company 21CT, Inc. before, but briefly we are a small,
technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. We have a 12-year history of maturing
37
new technologies, starting with early research and going all the way through operational military
and commercial use. Our products are focused on the areas of intelligence analytics, computer
network defense analytics, and fraud detection.
Not too long ago, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the "Information Superhighway". It
promised to improve our productivity, enrich our lives, educate our children and so much more,
via e-commerce, e-banking, e-Iearning, e-government, and the like. The Internet and the world-
wide-web are among the most successful technological and commercial advances in human
history. Yet with all the progress and success, there is a dark cloud hanging over cyberspace,
and that dark cloud is security. Cyber infrastructure is tightly woven into the very fabric of our
lives and it would be very hard to imagine going back to an earlier time -- but we are paying a
heavy price for our technological dependence and the problem is worsening with the passage of
time. Our trust in cyberspace has been taken from us by hackers, cybercriminals and
sophisticated cyber attackers who intend to do us harm. We deserve better. We expect our
information to be confidential from prying eyes. We expect system resources to be available to
us if we are legitimate users of those resources. We expect that our information will not be
altered in a way that we do not intend. We expect that it should not be impossibly difficult to
protect ourselves in cyberspace if/when the need arises. These expectations are simply not
being met today. Attacks on both the public sector and the private sector are rampant. Denial
of service, identity theft, and cyber extortion are now all too common. As you are all abundantly
aware, financial systems, national critical infrastructure systems, defense systems, and much
more are all targets of sophisticated cyber attacks.
Science of Cybersecurity
The discipline of cybersecurity today is too reactive and after-the-fact. In general, something
bad has to happen and then action is taken. There is certainly some ability to stop things that
have been seen before, but unfortunately new attacks, that haven't been seen before, are all too
common. Cybersecurity is not based on a firm science and engineering foundation and I
believe it is critically important that such a foundation be created. Some important activity has
started along these lines [e.g., 1, 2], but much more is needed. In our school science classes
we learned that water at sea level changes from a liquid into a gas at 100 degrees Celsius and
into a solid at 0 degrees Celsius. Similarly we leamed about gravity and that a freely falling
object near the earth's surface will increase by approximately 9.81 meters per second every
38
second. In science, the notions of laws, principles, experiments, metrics, repeatability, and
predictability (among others) are commonly used. These words and ideas are not common in
discussions of cybersecurity today, unfortunately. Indeed it has been noted [3] that when it
comes to predictability, about the only thing we can predict confidently in cybersecurity is that a
sufficiently motivated attacker will be able to compromise the targeted system.
There are at least three different ways to think about the role of science in cybersecurity [4, see
also 5]:
While progress is being made, we have much more work to do in all three areas.
Cybersecurity metrics
"If you can not measure it, you can not improve it. "
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in
numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot
express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the
beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of
SCience, whatever the matter may be."
These quotes are from the influential 19th century mathematical physicist and engineer Lord
Kelvin, and are appropriate in a discussion of cybersecurity metrics. While important work is
taking place [e.g., 4), we need improvements in hard, objective metrics and measures of
security. Metrics are needed at many very practical levels. At a very tactical level, how do you
know if computer system A is more or less secure than computer system B? Is computer
system A more secure than it was last month? Last year? At a corporate level, how you do
measure the security of your corporate information technology infrastructure? Is it more secure
now than it was last year? Do the measures allow a pinpoint assessment of where corporate
improvements are necessary? At a much more macro level, what metrics are best used to
determine if the industry as a whole is making progress toward improving its cybersecurity
posture? How would you measure the effect of an important government policy change in
39
In the December 2008 report from the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th
Presidency [6J, we estimated that in 2009 about 0.2% of federal R&D funding would go into
cybersecurity. That was several years ago, and no doubt the picture is different today, but at
least as of that time, we start from a very small base. Let me highlight just a few areas that I
think are important in addition to the science of cybersecurity thrust mentioned previously.
While travelling in London some years ago, I was nearly pulverized by one of those large red
double-decker buses. Being from the United States, before crossing a street, I am accustomed
to looking to my left before crossing. In this case, this instinct did not serve me well. I believe
that something similar is occurring for many people as we make decisions and operate our
computers in cyberspace. The instincts and tendencies that serve us well, the vast majority of
the time in the physical world actually betray us in the complex, abstract, virtual world of
cyberspace.
Security is very often about the weakest link. Hackers need just one way in. As technical
security measures improve (e.g., greater use of encryption), then people increasingly become
the weakest link. Hackers often employ a tactic known as "social engineering" to trick computer
operators to divulge sensitive information that can be used to compromise a system (e.g., a
password). These tactics can be extremely effective and much easier to accomplish than a
technical compromise. Indeed the well-known hacker Kevin Mitnick reported in testimony to
Congress that he was so successful in social engineering that he rarely had to resort to a
technical attack [7]. More generally, there are a well-known set of cognitive biases that people
use to assess risk and make decisions [8]. These biases often cloud our reasoning and cause
40
us to improperly assess risk, in many domains, including in cyberspace. We must take steps to
strengthen the weakest link. Gaining a much richer understanding of the cognitive biases at
work in the context of decision-making in cyberspace would be just one of many important
issues that need research at the intersection of psychology and cybersecurity.
Software assurance
Software is vulnerable - and that is a key reason why cyber compromise is so prevalent today.
Modern software systems are exceedingly complex and not only must work correctly in the face
of error or mischance, but must also work correctly when an adversary is trying to attack them
and this is exactly the sort of hostile environment that cyberspace creates for software.
Software today too often treats security as an after-the-fact problem. The software is
developed, tested and released and then a security incident occurs and the software must be
patched, after-the-fact. We must move to a model where security is built in to software from the
very beginning. How can we make dramatic breakthroughs in methods, procedures, metrics
and the like that incorporate building security into software, such that software is built to be
inherently resistant and resilient to attack? Can we introduce these new techniques in ways that
are cost-effective, that speed time to delivery and that are convenient to use for developers?
Can we compose new secure software from component pieces that are not secure? There
have certainly been important contributions made in this area of research, but I believe it is time
to accelerate and reinforce innovation and progress.
Trustworthy systems
Apparently we don't trust the software on our computers. We have millions and millions lines of
software code on our machines in the form of operating systems, device drivers, applications,
etc. We know that code may not be secure, so we purchase additional security software in the
form of firewalls, anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and the like. Well, security software
may be vulnerable as well, so now what? Do we buy a firewall for our firewall? You get the
idea. Related to the software assurance topic above is the notion of the need to build systems
that are inherently trustworthy. The problem expands in scope rather dramatically when you
now must consider building scalable trustworthy systems; systems of systems connected by
networks that must all be inherently trustworthy. You want these systems and networks to be
highly available, highly reliable, highly resilient, etc. These are very hard problems that will defy
easy solution as systems and networks continue to grow in size, scope and complexity.
41
Would YQJd spend $50 on software to help protect mv: computer? When you purchase anti-virus
software for your computer, one of the things that it is supposed to do is help ensure that your
computer does not become part of something called a botnet. If your computer becomes a bot,
this would mean that unwanted, malicious software has been installed on your computer that
allows a hacker (also called the botmaster) to take control of your computer. Once the
botmaster has seized control of your computer he/she can command it, for example, to do
malicious things to other computers - perhaps mine. So in a very real way, the security of mv:
computer depends on whether or not YQJd have purchased software to protect YQ!JI computer. It
is important to note that this has nothing to do with technology per se but rather with whether
economic incentives are in alignment. That is to say, the security of a system may have more to
do with economic incentives than with technical capability. Similarly, software companies are
capable of making their software more secure but so far they haven't been economically
incented to do so. Business factors such as speed to market, enhanced features, improved
system performance, and the like, often take priority over security. How much should a firm
spend to secure its cyber infrastructure? Does increased spending on cybersecurity result in
improved cybersecurity? How should the money be spent? On hardware or software or more
staff? What about a cybersecurity insurance policy? Research here will be related to work on
metrics. An active field of research has been started in this area - the results are most
illuminating -- and much more is needed.
In May of 1961 President Kennedy announced a bold national goal, "before this decade is out,
of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." As we all know, that
historic mission was successfully accomplished in July of 1969. Early computer security work
was starting at around the time Apollo 11 was splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, and now-
well over 40 years later - computer security is far from a solved problem. Why has this been so
hard? There are many reasons, but recently people have talked about cybersecurity as a
"wicked problem" [9]. Wicked in this context does not refer to evil, but rather resistance to
solution. Wicked problems are extremely difficult and perhaps impossible to solve and include
these properties, among others [10J:
To the extent that cybersecurity is indeed a wicked problem, then I believe that an
interdisciplinary research approach is needed, In addition to the disciplines of psychology,
computer science and economics described above, what can we leam from the fields of biology,
medicine, physics, anthropology, political science and more? I believe these other disciplines
will add much to the research dialogue.
There are other important research topics that are not described here, that are worthy of
mention including: secure cloud computing, secure mobile computing, secure hardware, secure
hypervisors, secure coding, insider threat, data science, and many more,
"The cyber threat to the United States affects all aspects of society, business and govemment,
but there is neither a broad cadre of cyber experts nor an established cyber career field to build
upon, particularly within the federal government."
(Source: Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency, CSIS Commission on Cybersecurfiy for the 44th Presidency. Dec, 2008.)
The cybersecurity skills gap has been discussed extensively over the last few years [e.g., 111
and indeed the continuing shortage of qualified cyber professionals remains a major obstacle in
making significant progress in cybersecurity. Representing a small company with on-going
demands for highly technical cyber hires, it is a constant challenge for us to identify and recruit
the necessary expertise and this is a consistent theme,
In our work on the Texas Cybersecurity, Education and Economic Development Council [121,
the skills gap issue came up time and time again. It was clear to us that the workforce gap
would be a long-term problem and we advocated a "pipeline" approach to ensure a long-term
supply of well-trained, motivated cybersecurity professionals in the state, This K-through-PhD
approach is represented in the figure below and incorporates both professional training and
awareness training.
43
p!IIIll!IlI_lf
1(-5
Industry-based Cybersecurity Professional Training and
Certifications
1
[
I was asked to comment on H.R. 2096, The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2012, and would
offer these brief comments:
44
cybersecurity research grand challenges - that meet the needs of industry, govemment
and academia. Solutions to such grand challenges could help advance the field and at
the same time help solve some enduring hard problems facing practioners in the future.
Finally, and more generally, in my testimony I stressed the importance I place in
developing a science of cybersecurity. I would mention here that not all cybersecurity
research produces a benefit to cybersecurity science. It's a subtle but important point.
Among other things, cybersecurity science should tell us something about the limits of
what is possible in a particular security domain, and have broad applicability beyond a
Let me close by saying that I've suggested some items in my testimony that will take a long time
to implement. For example, producing a long-term, robust and deeply technical cybersecurity
workforce or creating a science of cybersecurity, could take decades. I'm reminded of an old
proverb: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago - the second best time is now. Thank
References
1. JASON Program Office. Science of cyber-security. Report NO.:JSR-l0-102. The Mitre Corporation,
McLean, VA, November 2010.
2. Developing a blueprint for a science of cybersecurity, The Next Wave, Vol. 19, No.2, 2012, National
Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD.
3. Evans, D. & Stolfo, S. The science of security. IEEE Security & Privacy, 9, 16-17,2011.
4. Stolfo, S., Bellovin, S.M. & Evans, D. Measuring security. IEEE Security & Privacy, 9,60-65,2011.
5. Schneider, F.B. Blueprint for a science of cybersecurity, The Next Wave, Vol. 19, No.2, 47-57,2012,
National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD.
6. CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, Securing Cyberspace for the 44th
Presidency, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, December 2008.
7. Mitnick, K. Kevin Mitnick in a hearing before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate,
"Cyber Attack: Is the Government Safe?" March 2, 2000.
B. Kahneman, D., Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2011.
9. lucky, RW. Cyber Amnageddon. IEEE Spectrum, vol. 47, no. 9, pp. 25-25, 2010.
10. Rittel, H. & Webber, M. Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Policy Sciences, 4, 155-169,
1973.
11. A Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity: Technical Proficiency Matters. CSIS Commission on
Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington,
DC, July 2010,
12. Building a More Secure and Prosperous Texas: A Report from the Texas Cybersecurity, Education,
and Economic Development Council, Austin, TX, December 2012.
46
Testimony of
Terry V. Benzel
Hearing on
Cyber R&D Challenges and Solutions
February 26, 2013
Thank you Chairman Massie, Ranking Member Wilson, Chairman Bucshon, Ranking
Member Lipinski, and Members of the Committee, for this opportunity to discuss Cyber
Research and Development Challenges and Solutions. I am pleased to add my
perspeetive on the Committee's questions, and my eomments on the Cyber Security
Enhancement Act of2013. My remarks are based on more than 30 years in the cyber
security research and development community, including:
1
49
1. Background
First, let me provide some background on my current work. I am the Deputy Director of
the Cybcr Networks and Cyber Security Division of the Information Sciences Institute
(lSI), part of the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California
(USC). USC is one of the world's leading private research universities and an anehor
institution in Los Angeles, a city that is now a global center for technology, international
trade and the arts.
The Viterbi School of Engineering has been a leader in the transformation from analog to
digital communications since the early 1960s. In fact, lSI was one of the handful of
institutions around the globe that created the Internet. Our researchers largely developed
the Internet communications protocols that are still in use, administered the domain name
system (DNS) for 16 years, and coined the terms "dot-com," "dot-org", "dot-gov" and
"dot-net" that are now ubiquitous worldwide.
My cornments on R&D, and on technology transfer and education in particular, are based
on my whole professional history. They are informed by my work at lSI, which has
unique whose unique characteristics are applicable to the issues facing this panel today.
In particular:
• Our work spans three complementary and critical areas: academic, including
research and education; industrial, delivering technology-based solutions for
government and business partners; and professional, offering students unusual,
hands-on experience.
o All these components are required to pursue R&D that is well prepared for
tech transfer and use by a well-educated technology workforce.
• Our research work spans pure fundamental research to applied technology that
can be transitioned to practical use in government and industry. Numerous
systems devcloped at lSI have been fielded in operational settings. Many have
become the basis of new product offerings, either for startups or acquisition by
established teclmology companies.
• Our reliance primarily on federal funding, our experience with applied projects
and our role in educating the next generation of researchers, gives us an unusual,
integrated perspective on research, education and technology transfer needs,
processes and solutions.
In the cyber-security part ofISI, our work shares all these characteristics. My group's
cyber-security work is focused mainly on the DETER Project, which is one of the
nation's foremost resources for innovative, experiment-based cyber R&D. In DETER,
we are working to address critical strategic issues:
2
50
between threat and defense has widened, even as our adversaries deploy
increasingly sophisticated attack technology and engage in cyber-crime with
unprecedented power, resources, and global reach. Moreover, targets
increasingly are attacked with foreign state sponsorship.
Our nation's cyber-adversaries are focusing not only high-profile commercial and
govemment systems, and not only the traditional critical infrastructures such as
the power grid, hydro dams, and nuclear energy facilities, but also new targets
that affect individual health and safety: wireless computing and controls in cars,
medical devices, home appliances and safety systems, and the emerging smart
energy grid that is tying them all together.
Before moving ahead with my remarks and recommendations about the eyber security
challenge and the Cyber Security Enhancement Act, I will comment on how my group's
current work addresses this cyber-security challenge, including issues of, and promising
approaches to, cyber-security enhancement.
The DETER project is working to fill the cyber-security gap described above. We
function both as a research project and as the operator of a major cyber experimentation
lab, DeterLab. Our research agenda spans a wide range of innovative methods,
technology, and infrastructure for the work of cyber-security researchers. We put our
research results and innovations into practice in DeterLab, which enables researchers to
experiment with and test their cyber-security advances. One strategic goal for DeterLab is
to help researchers dramatically accelerate the pace of their work, shifting from
repetitive, small-lab engineering to the repeatable, measurable scientific expcrimentation
and testing that we enable DeterLab users to conduct.
Let me repeat my point about rigorous, repeatable testing and a realistic, large-scale test
environment. These capabilities address a historical problem in tech transfer: an
innovation that works well in a predictable, controlled environment, but turns out to be
much less effective, reliable or manageable in a major, critical government or enterprise
IT environment. Without realistic, large-scale resources and research environments,
results are unpredictable. As I observed when I worked for security vendors, large
enterprise-security companies have been burned time and again by acquiring small
security startups that are attempting to commercialize university-bred research. These
3
51
products may work well for a few early adopters, but rarely scale up to real enterprise
environments in terms of effective protection or practical security management.
Members of the House of Representatives, I would like to address four key points:
We face threats that are rapidly increasing in scope and sophistication. As was made
painfully clear by last week's revelations of Chinese military incursions (by the
"Shanghai Group" or "Comment Crew") into US systems, we now face state-sponsored
cyber-sleuthing and cyber-terrorism. This unstable environment includes targeted attacks
by ad hoc organizations and global cybcr-crime syndicates that are escalating their
operations against systems critical to our national safety and security.
Cyber security is now a constant challenge for every faeet of civilized soeiety. We have
become completely dependent on eyber capabilities and, as a result, highly vulnerable to
wide-ranging threats. Despite years of researeh, however, we are still at the losing end of
an asymmetric battle. As members of these Sub-Committees, I'm sure you have heard
many times that steps must be taken to change these dynamics. As a nation, we must
support new forms of research and development, and must ensure that resulting advances
are based solidly in experimental science.
But even the best work is meaningless unless a chain of activities works cnd to end.
cyber- science must be transformed into meaningful technology;
• that technology must demonstrate its viability in real-world settings;
• real-world viability must become the basis for transferring technology to critical
systems that otherwise remain vulnerable;
4
52
critical systems opcrators must usc and manage the new technology effectively;
Efficacy must encompass the evolving landscape of threats.
If anyone of these links falters, then cyber-security innovations will not deliver real
value to government and commercial customers. Nor will they serve the ultimate
stakeholders in those systems: you and I and our friends and family, all of whom depend
on orderly air traffic, reliable electric power, secure personal data, an alert and ready
military enterprise, and countless other vital services.
For example, our community includes scientists conducting very good research on
distributed denial of service threats, Internet worms, botnets and Internet routing attacks.
Researchers typically specialize in just one of these well-known areas, where innovative
countermeasures, protection and hardening are extremely valuable. But our adversaries
are constructing attacks that combine these areas into even more potent, multi-faceted
weapons. Often, these approaches are amplified with sophisticated social engineering
attacks designed to steal the keys to vulnerable systems.
Fortunately, there is substantial progress away from the single-focus syndrome. Federal
agency sponsors have been steering researchers toward cyber-seeurity issues that are
critical to national, homeland and economic security. One result is more breadth in
cyber-security research. Another, perhaps more critical outcome is a shift away from
existing, commercial cyber-security problems to those that are not yet subject to rigorous
work. The National Science Foundation is pursuing this strategic approach through its
Frontier, Large, Medium, and Center focused Secure and Trustworthy Computing
Program (SaTC), and through other programs aimed at increasing research breadth and
dimensionality. The DHS Science and Technology group funding also is helping shift
research to difficult, nationally strategic issues.
Still, studying broadly within our own disciplines is not enough. Cyber-security is no
longer solely an engineering discipline. It requires deep involvement from economists,
sociologists, anthropologists and other scientists to create the holistic research agendas
that can anticipate and guide effective cyber-defense strategies.
5
53
The Cyberseeurity Enhaneement Act of2013 includes provisions for addressing this
rccommendation in sec. 103, Cyberseeurity Strategic Research and Development plan,
and specifieally the call in item 2 for innovative, transformational technologies.
Historically, cyber-security R&D has struggled to prove its value. The scientific basis for
assessing the relative strength of theoretical and technological cyber-security solutions
often has been uncertain. That uncertainty has hampered tech transition and widespread
cyber-security adoption.
Corporations and government entities often pose security as a negative, as in: "We didn't
get broken into, so we must be secure." In essence, they define security as the absence of
visible insecurity. Even those that deploy cyber-security solutions may believe in simple,
reactive "attack-defend-dctect" approaches. Given my previous remarks and those of
other cyber-security experts, it may seem puzzling that large-system organizations retain
such a naIve position. I'd like to explain from personal experience how this mindset
came about, and how a different approach to R&D is shifting the paradigm.
When I was a Vice President at McAfee, I often met with top corporate customers, which
typically were large enterprises in banking, manufacturing, retail and other industries.
The chief information officers of these organizations typically would ask me about
return-on-investment (ROI) for our products. Their concern was how much to spend on,
and how to best leverage, their cyber security investments. The truth is that we had no
easy answers. At any single point in time, thcsc customers could assess their threats and
risks, and make rational choices on what defenses to purchase and why. But the threat
erivironment changes so rapidly that those choices might be sensible only at that specific
moment, based on what was limited knowledge we, and the customers, had at the time.
Later, some choices might prove to deliver little value, while others were far more than
worth their pricc. Still other, more devastating threats might remain threateningly at
large.
This is a serious issue. Companies, particularly those with public shareholders, can't sit
still and ignore the latest security technologies lest they find their systcms seriously
compromised. Security vendors have every incentive to reinforce that knowledge. They
continuously can deliver new security widgets to counteract newly discovered threats.
Some ofthese "solutions" invariably will be ineffectual or impractical. Are customers'
threats addressed and risks reduced overall, at any increased rate? While there was and is
no way to measure, the answer appears to be a resounding "No." We now see the world's
most extensive, sophisticated IT operations, in corporations and governments worldwide,
penetrated by China, Iran, organized crime and other top-tier adversaries.
6
54
Under funding from Dr. Douglas Maughan, then at DARPA, we performed a study,
"Justification and Requirements for a National DDoS Defense Technology Evaluation
Facility." The study provided the basis for defining key objectives for the DETER
project. In 2003, with funding from NSF and DHS S&T, we initiated the DETER
Project.
Looking forward, it is clear that cyber security R&D must be grounded in the same
systematic approach to discovery and validation that is routine in other scientific and
technological disciplines. To approach these challenging research problems, we must
create a paradigm shift in experimental cyber-security. Only by enabling demonstrable,
repeatable experimental results can we provide a sound basis for researchers to leverage
prior work - and create new capabilities not yet imaginable. Tomorrow's researchers
must be able to stand on the shoulders of today's researchers, not be consigned to re-
treading the same ground.
Only by living in the future - enabling researchers to experiment with techniques and
tools that do not yet exist and operate in environments only beginning to emerge - can
highly capable, fluid new approaches take shape. The alternative is to remain caught on
the new-widget treadmill, in which the nation must continually run faster to stay in same
place, while invariably falling behind.
Living in the future also means enabling continuous R&D infrastructure gains. Our
highly connected world is growing exponentially in scale and complexity. Critical
national assets, and the threats to them, evolve in tandem as well. While there are now
various cyber-security testbed experimentation facilities around the U.S., only a few are
applicable to a wide range of experimentation and almost none are openly available.
Still, their existence is a valuable step toward research into a cross-disciplinary range of
cyber-security experimentation and testing methods and tools.
NSF, DHS S&T, DOE and DARPA all have invested in this evolution, spurring valuable
advances such as federation of diverse scientific facilities. Researchers in disparate
7
55
locations now are able to work collaboratively, at the same time, to conduct experiments
on a global scale.
But these advances are circumscribed and uneven. To match dramatic, ongoing change
and complexity in the world at large, our cyber-defenders need parallel growth in R&D
infrastructure capabilities. These initiatives must be expanded and coordinated to support
a highly capable, shared national resource.
The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of2013 includes provisions for addressing this
recommendation in sec. 103, Cybersecurity Strategic Research and Development plan.
Specifically, item 4 requires a plan to "maintain a national research infrastructure for
creating, testing, and evaluating the next generation of secure networking and
information technology systems."
The U.S. government and major corporations have poured hundreds of millions of dollars
into security R&D for more than 20 years. Creditably, this spending is growing in scale
and increasingly is strategically focused on critical infrastructure and homeland security.
These investments hold the promise of delivering real-world value: putting practical
security technologies in place to protect important assets. Of course, r recommend that
funding agencies continue to grow their emphases in these crucial directions.
In part, the answer lies in what I've already discussed: that security R&D has tended to
be ad hoc, small-scale and lacking in the scientific methods of other disciplines - and
thus in creation ofa solid, accessible body ofknowlcdge. But there also have been, and
continue to be, structural problems with currcnt tech transfer processes that can't be
solved through hardening the science alone. Researchers and funders could achieve our
wildest dreams for effective, cost-efficient, privacy-assuring cyber-security. Yet the
results might have no impact unless the underlying structural issues are addressed and
resolved.
8
56
• Mismatch between market and threat environment. Security vendors became vcry
tactical in focus, looking at which innovations would fuel the next incremental
security fix. They then upsold to existing customers and attempted to pull in new
ones.
As a result of this largely ad hoc approach, some government and private investment has
sparked revolutionary new products, companies and industries. Others have improved
the operational security practices ofIT departments around the world dramatically. Still
others have resulted in research papers and prototypes, but not commercializable
technologies. The net effect is that many potentially valuable security technologies never
saw the light of day.
New approaches to tech transfer also are paying - often literally - dividends. For
example, the Stevens Institute for Innovation at USC, funded by highly successful
venture capitalist Mark Stevens and his wife, assists faculty and students with everything
from nuts-and-bolts contracts and funding issues to instilling a culture of innovation
university-wide. Its reliance on public-private partnerships, while not unique to USC,
offers a uniquely effective means for engineers, physicians and other academic
researchers to connect with the world at large.
9
57
In recent years, cyber-security R&D has been steered toward a model directed at
homeland security and critical infrastructure. This strategic shift is fostering
collaborations between universities and national labs, and is beginning to yield excellent
work on smart energy grids, advanced persistent threats, next-generation Internet, and
other security innovations that meet specified, high-priority needs. Much of this work is
both strategic and long-term in nature, with the potential for fundamental transformation
in protected assets or their protections.
Unfortunately, general enterprise security vendors have gone in the opposite direction.
Most are now completely tactical, rather than strategic, in focus. As long as the cyber-
security market was expanding dramatically, businesses could afford to pursue numerous,
promising approaches. But market growth for these large-enterprise vendors largely has
stalled despite the proliferation of technology. Large security vendors, like all players in
mature markets, are chasing incremental growth in revenue and market share. They are
dependent on creating small-scale innovations that will fuel the next incremental security
fix. The vendor with the longest list of Band-Aids has the competitive edge.
At the same time, the majority of critical infrastructures are privately owned and operated
in highly regulated industries, leaving them cost-constrained and lacking in capital for
new technology. These industries also constitute narrow vertical markets that do not
drive commercial product cycles. Such an approach is completely at odds with securing
critical cyber infrastructure - and with strategic, long-term, transformational innovation.
In my view, it's imperative that we invent a new virtuous cycle in which government-
funded work steers strategic cyber-security R&D. Clearly, the nation would be foolish to
rely solely on incumbent vendors and system integrators to decide which innovations
should be pushed forward and which consigned solely to professional journals. Public
private partnerships and other innovative approaches surely can help re-define what the
market is and how its vital players should be approached, For instance, the overall
market may include not just large enterprise systems, but control systems for
transportation, dedicated distribution like pipelines, and other businesses that deal in
critical infrastructure. I don't know what this tech-transfer model ultimately will look
like, but the current model flings open the door wide to cyber-insecurity.
There is, however, another structural issue: the businesses and government entities that
are major security customers. Beginning in the I 990s, hydroelectric power plants,
chemical manufacturers on major waterways, nuclear plants and other entities crucial to
public safety began running control systems to monitor and manage their operations.
Such systems theoretically separate their critical national assets from other systems
connected to the Internet - and thus vulnerable to outside attack. Many control systems
have known vulnerabilities, however, that are only partially addressed by commercial
security products. While innovative security technologies exist to harden these systems,
customers are slow to adopt them.
The reason: For decades, the security vendors on which these customers rely have
offered assurances that current technology is "good enough." To admit otherwise might
10
58
require major, costly infrastructure changes for their customers. In highly regulated
markets with limited capital, vendors are better served by continuing offer "good
enough" and incremental low-cost Band-Aids.
As a result, the new virtuous cycle also must build sharply heightened threat awareness
into customers' mindsets. Businesses and government entities must understand the
magnitude of threats, the dire risks of miscalculation - to health and safety, citizen and
consumer trust, and public and private finances - and that the disruption of the
technology status quo may be more than worth the benefits. Customers must demand the
level and pace of trans formative technology that Americans deserve. Again, I don't
presume to know how this should be done, only that it is as vital a mandate as advancing
cyber-security defenses themselvcs.
In sum, the research challenges I described initially are compoundcd by significant tech
transfer challenges. Thesc challenges are surmountable if we:
The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of2013 includes provisions for addressing this
recommendation in sec. !O3, Cybersecurity Strategic Research and Development plan.
Specifically, item 3 calls for programs that, " ... foster the rapid transfer of research and
development results into new cybersecurity technologies and applications for the timely
benefit of society and the national interest. .. "
The current dearth of cyber-professionals has sparked significant new federal training and
education programs aimed at addressing this need. Among these initiatives: the National
Initiative for Cyber Security Education (NICE), the Scholarship for Service program, the
National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, and the
Centers of Academic Excellence in Research.
While these initiatives are beginning to increase the pipeline of cybcr-professionals, their
scale, pace and depth so far are nowhere near sufficient to address America's critical
11
59
needs in the public or private sectors. The challenge now is to help government agencies,
contractors and critical infrastructure providers locate and access program suited for their
organizations' needs.
Just last week (on February 21,2013), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
launched the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS), an
online resource for cyber-security career, education, and training information. NICCS
will help expand, inform, monitor, certify and promote training programs. The process of
creating, cataloging and monitoring training programs is a positive step toward meeting
the nation's pressing cyber-seeurity needs.
USC actively is engaged in several new initiatives to advance eyber-education. The USC
Viterbi School of Engineering offers classes in computer security, and recruits and funds
graduate students who are exposed to leading-edge cyber security research. In addition,
the University will begin offering a Master ofCyber Security degree. This novel degree,
which will integrate strong engineering and computing theory with applicd science, will
educate students to help solve real-world information security challenges.
While classroom study and early exposure to research provide foundational cyber-
security education, effective training also demands direct, hands-on involvement.
Teaching eyber security is challenging. How do you demonstrate system weaknesses,
inspire students to create constructive new solutions to vulnerabilities, and provide an
environment in which they realistically can explore threat scenarios? We believe that
undergraduates with direct cyber-security experience are most likely to be eager to - and
capable of - earning master's degrces. Similarly, graduate students who engage in
science-based experimental research are most likely to develop the passion to pursue
demanding doctoral and post-doctoral studies, and to obtain the academic positions that
will enable them to continue developing our nation's cyber-warriors. None of these
advances would be possible without federal government investment in fundamental
cyber-security research.
The DETER Project at lSI offers precisely the hands-on security education, to a wide
range of colleges and universities, that is essential for strengthening our intellectual
resources. Teaching cyber-seeurity is a core component of DETER's two-fold mission: to
develop research into capable new eyber-seeurity methods and technologies, and to
operate DeterLab, our shared facility for cyber-security experimentation, testing and
education. Through the DETER Project, educators can tap into DeterLab, providing
12
60
students with the vivid, realistic experience that can spark imagination and ignite passion
for research.
The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of2013 includes provisions for addressing this
recommendation in sec. 106, Federal Cyber Scholarship For Service
18 Program; sec. 107, Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment; and sec. \08,
Cybersecurity University-Industry Task Force.
3. Summary
Cyber security is now a constant, serious and accelerating challenge in every facet of
American society. We have become completely dependent on cyber capabilities and, as a
result, highly vulnerable to wide-ranging threats. Where these once were largely
annoying hacker probes and network intrusions, we now face organized crime and state-
sponsored cyber-terrorism. Despite many years of research, we are still on the losing side
of an asymmetric battle. These dynamics must be changed to protect US government
information, corporate trade secrets, and public health and safety, among other vital
concerns. We can no longer treat cyber security as an engineering discipline, we must
embrace multiple disciplines bringing economists, sociologists, anthropologists and the
other sciences to the table to create holistic research agendas.
Increase the breadth and scope of cyber-security R&D, and create opportunities for
mUlti-disciplinary research.
Corporations and government entities often define security as the absence of visible
insecurity. Cyber-security R&D often has been small-scale and ad hoe, and has struggled
to prove its worth. Research must be grounded in the same systematic approach to
discovery and validation that is routine in other scientific and technological disciplines.
13
61
New approaches to research and development must be energized - and new findings must
be based in hard experimental science - to support crucial cybcr-security discovery,
validation and ongoing analysis. Only by enabling demonstrable, repeatable
experimental results can we provide a sound basis for researchers to leverage prior work
- and create new capabilities not yet imaginable.
The U.S. needs deep intellectual resources to change the cyber-threat dynamic
fundamentally. In addition to creating, cataloging and monitoring training programs, we
need to be prepared to make significant investments in higher education. I applaud the
efforts of the National Science Foundation and othcr federal research agencies to crcate
and fund cyber-security research and education grants. These fundamental research
endeavors are the essential catalyst for research breakthroughs. Only by educating the
next generation of researchers and educators today can we build the intellectual resources
vital to solving tomorrow's problems.
Taken together, these four recommendations form the basis for a multi-pronged,
sustainable national program to address cyber R&D challenges - and to pursue the most
promising approaches to a new order for research, development and innovation
partnerships.
14
62
some long-term bets and begin changing the vector on what the de-
fensive posture looks like.
Ms. WILSON. Ms. Benzel?
Ms. BENZEL. Yes, I think that we have begun to see some
progress in the funding, of course, at a very small level as Dr.
Chang says in being strategic about our cybersecurity R&D. If we
are to slow that down as a result of funding cuts with sequestra-
tion, then we have set ourselves back. We are already on the losing
end of an asymmetric battle. And giving our adversaries another
year to gain a leg up while we fight our own internal budget is only
going to make the situation much worse.
You know, as it is with funding cycles with places like the Na-
tional Science Foundation it takes close to a year from the time I,
as a researcher, have an idea, submit that idea, and get a contract.
And so again introducing another delay as a result of the budget
battles is only going to set us back. And in particular, a point in
time when these agencies have become much more strategic, better
coordinated, and better focused in their research. We have re-
searchers in the pipeline. We have projects that are happening
today, and we can’t afford to stop them, slow them down, or lessen
and weaken their effects while the adversaries are on a dramatic
increase as we have seen recently.
The change that we see in the adversarial landscape in the last
year is ten times what we saw in the ten years before. And so any
gap in funding is going to be extremely detrimental. Thank you.
Ms. WILSON. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman MASSIE. On the gentlelady’s request to include two let-
ters in the record?
Ms. WILSON. I have them.
Chairman MASSIE. Without objection, so ordered.
[The information appears in Appendix II]
Chairman MASSIE. I now recognize Chairman Bucshon for five
minutes.
Mr. BUCSHON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And there has been some emphasis on the importance of social
science research and cybersecurity, among other areas, partly be-
cause so much security has to do with human behavior. And the
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act supports this type of work in Sec-
tion 104 of the legislation.
The question is—I will direct this to Mr. Barrett first—is—let me
say a couple of things that have been funded recently—$1.2 million
to pay seniors to play video games, $764,825 to study how college
students use mobile devices for social networking. So with these
type of things being funded, how should we prioritize social science
research conducted by the National Science Foundation to ensure
that such work is focused on critical national needs such as
cybersecurity?
Mr. BARRETT. I am not sure whether it is necessarily proper for
me to have an opinion on how Congress should prioritize the work
of the National Science Foundation, but I do think there are key
research gaps, and certainly, in a number of areas in part about
cybersecurity education, which is woefully lacking across the spec-
trum from young kids up through college-level curricula and var-
ious different levels. As Dr. Chang alluded earlier, we don’t frankly
65
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. And so right now, you are not sure there
is a good collection of the census, shall we say?
Ms. BENZEL. Oh, I don’t believe so.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. Mr. Chairman, Dr. Chang—and sorry, I
am down to just a few, but you actually started to touch on some-
thing that I would love to have an extended discussion with you.
And that is, how do we finance ourselves right now? Right now, we
are sort of in a classic academic sort of model of finance, primary
research. And hopefully, there is something that comes out of it.
But what you were describing a little while ago in your experi-
ence sounds more like almost the X-prize-type mechanic of bringing
people together, whether it be a garage engineer or an academic.
And the person that produces something great gets to move for-
ward. Do you think it is time we also start to wedge and design
some other ways to finance innovation here?
Dr. CHANG. I will answer that in—maybe in kind of in connection
with the question you asked to Mr. Barrett. Basically, security
today is not where it needs to be, and fundamentally, somebody is
going to have to pay to move security up. It will be the government
because they have to prosecute more criminals. It will be software
companies because they have to make software more secure. It will
be people because people are bearing losses.
So overall I would love to have a longer conversation.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your patience.
Sorry.
Chairman MASSIE. Thank you. If Dr. Chang would like to re-
spond in writing for the record, that would be fine.
I now recognize Ms. Esty. Oh, I am sorry. Mr. Peters. Sorry.
Mr. PETERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I appreciate the chance to be here today. This is an impor-
tant industry in my district as well in San Diego, both because we
are developing a lot of the software and also because the Navy has
a lot of—or the military has a lot of interest in the field.
And Dr. Chang, I am glad you are a UCSD grad, too. I appre-
ciate that.
My question is sort of, you know, we know that—I think it was
yesterday that the Global Information Security Workforce Study
from Booz Allen Hamilton said that 56 percent of cybersecurity
professionals feel that security organizations are short-staffed and
that the cybersecurity field is projected to grow 11 percent annually
over the next five years. And so there is—I think it is widely un-
derstood that there is a gap in the workforce. But what I am sort
of interested in is what are the—what is the field of cybersecurity
from an academic sense? You described it as an interdisciplinary
exercise. We know it is not just computer science or software. But
if you were trying to certify someone in cybersecurity, kind of—do
you have a sense—maybe you can help me understand what it is
that that person would need to know. And that is for anyone.
Dr. CHANG. Sure. I can start. So there are the traditional dis-
ciplines that you learn in computer science about programming,
about algorithms, about discrete math and so forth. You would add
some elements to that in order to focus more specifically in
cybersecurity. And so you would add more about networking, per-
haps more about analysis. There is this interesting conversation
73
no single bill that could be passed that will, on its own, materially
change the trend line. But on the other hand, the sort of lack of
a grand unification theory shouldn’t stop us from doing good work.
And this bill would definitely appear to be falling into that place
where it does no harm and it also does good work in the specific
areas it has chosen.
Mr. MCCAUL. That is a very good point. I think—I served on the
Speaker’s Cybersecurity Task Force, and our first action was to do
no harm by legislation. So I appreciate you saying that.
Dr. Chang?
Dr. CHANG. Thank you.
So in advance of reading the bill if I could have picked two things
that are critical to improving the Nation’s cybersecurity posture it
would be research and development and workforce development.
And so this legislation to me is just right on target relative to ad-
dressing the top two problems. I guess I would add, as I mentioned
in my spoken testimony, the notion that we need to be patient
about this. You know, I guess it would be great if we could sort of
plant a forest and all the trees turn into something that resulted
in wonderful research. But we—I see this legislation as important
in that it is at least planting a few trees. It allows us to plant
some—a few things that will grow into the future.
I would sure hate to be sitting here ten years from now, 20 years
from now still saying that we actually don’t understand causes. We
don’t understand solutions. We don’t understand countermeasures.
And this legislation I believe begins planting a few trees. Thank
you.
Mr. MCCAUL. And thanks for making the point about the cyber
workforce in the Federal Government. I think that is very, very im-
portant as well.
Ms. Benzel?
Ms. BENZEL. Yes, thank you for the opportunity and thank you
for your perseverance in this area.
I agree with my colleagues. There is no one answer. It is a very
difficult field. But I was quite—very impressed to see this par-
ticular bill in two areas that I would call out. And one is the tech-
nology transfer recognition of the difficulty of that problem. And I
have worked in a number of different public-private partnerships
over the years. I was part of the PCAST Committee back in the
early 2000s. I see that the opportunity here to do some real plan-
ning around university kinds of partnerships and bringing the uni-
versities into it so it is a three—tri-part aspect is very exciting in
the bill.
The other one is in the science of cybersecurity and under-
standing that there is a need for research and development kinds
of testbeds and experimentation. That is called out in the bill for
experimental science.
So I think technology transfer and experimental cybersecurity
have a chance to be fundamentally changing. And of course the
education and training are important, too.
Mr. MCCAUL. Well, let me thank the witnesses for your expertise
and for appearing here today.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me to participate in this
hearing even though I don’t sit on the Subcommittee. And I look
77
(79)
80
ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
Responses by Mr. Michael Barrett
81
Responses by Dr. Frederick R. Chang
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
TilE HONORABLE LARRY BUCSHON (R-IN)
U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
I. I understand the severity of our cybersecurity problem and the possibilities of failing to
mitigate an attack; however, I cannot help but feel like this problem is like constantly trying to
find a needle in a haystack, and that both the federal government and companies will continually
spend without any measure of whether we have done "enough" or how safe our investments
rnake us. Is there any way past this perpetual bottomless pit?
Thank you for this question. I think that at least part of the answer lies in the development of
robust cybersecurity metrics, and these really don't exist today. How secure is my computer
right now? Is it more secure that it was a year ago? How about my company's computer
network- is it more secure than it was a year ago? If I doubled my corporate spending in
cybersecurity, have I doubled the security of my corporate cybersecurity infrastructure? I can't
improve what I can't measure. To the extent that the federal government can help lead the way
toward the development of a comprehensive, robust, and rigorous set of cybersecurity metrics,
that would be of tremendous value, in my opinion. Perfect cybersecurity is not attainable -
we've known this for some time now. So in some sense, it comes down to a risk assessment
decision. Can I make it more difficult for an adversary to compromise my network than they
have resources or time to do so? If I demand cybersecurity improvementtargets (again
assuming the existence of a robust set of metrics) such that week after week, month after
month, year after year, I'm seeing improvements, then I'm increasing the level of effort and
resources needed on the part of the adversary and I'm moving the advantage continually in my
direction and away from my adversary.
82
I. In your testimony, you mention that education and training is vital for all individuals-from
users to professionals. Could you please address the role the federal government should play in
closing the cybersecurity skills gap? What can or should be done by federal agencies to improve
cybersecurity education at the K-12 level, undergraduate level, and graduate level?
Thank you for this question. At the K-12 level I tend to favor approaches that generally get more
kids interested in the STEM - science, technology, engineering and math - areas. There are so
many activities that compete for kids attention, that to the extent the federal government can
create a motivation and focus such that more kids pursue STEM subjects, then I think that would
be a win. Some of those individuals will pursue an interest in cybersecurity and that would be
terrific. Others may pursue an interest in physics, chemistry, biology or the social sciences, and
in my opinion that would be also be a win for the nation. Pcrhaps at some later time, these
particular individuals would develop an interest in cybersecurity. There are many examples of
great contributions to cybersecurity from people trained in a different area of
science/engineering. I know that there are many outstanding ideas that have been offered as to
how to increase interest in the STEM topics in the K-12 years, so I won't repeat them here.
At the post-secondary level, scholarships like the NSF Scholarship for Service (SFS) and the
Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program (!ASP) are invaluable tools
for bringing talented college students into the field of cybersecurity. While I was at the
University of Texas at San Antonio, I had the opportunity to work closely with several students
who were holders of these scholarships. I could see first-hand the sort of difference these
scholarships made to these students. I believe that by increasing the number and variety of
scholarships like this could be a very useful way to help increase the number of well-qualified
cybersecurity professionals. While at the University of Texas at Austin some years ago, I had the
opportunity to serve as the faculty advisor for the UT -Austin team that competed in the first
annual Texas Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. These sorts of competitions give students a
wonderful perspective on the field - one that they cannot get in the classroom. Competitions like
this have grown in popularity over the years and to the extent that the federal government can
play a role in their continued growth and popularity, I believe that would be an important
contributor to increasing the number of trained professionals in the field.
83
Responses by Ms. Terry Benzel
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
THE HONORABLE LARRY BUCSHON (R-IN)
U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
I. I understand the severity of our cybersecurity problem and the possibilities of failing to
mitigate an attack; however, I cannot help but feel like this problem is like constantly trying to
find a needle in a haystack, and that both the federal government and companies will continually
spend without any measure of whether we have done "enough" or how safe our investments
make us. Is there any way past this perpetual bottomless pit?
That's an excellent question, starting with the recognition that we lack useful metrics for
assessing the practical benefits of deploying some new security technology, or of expanding
the use of existing security technology. That's all too true. And to point out two ways that
we can change that, let me explain two reasons for the current lack of metrics.
One factor is that it's only been in the last decade or less that we've realized a fundamental
difference in objective between government use of cyber-security technology, and the kind
of commercial use that drives the efforts of security vendors to bring new products to
market. In the commercial sector, the fundamental benefit of security technology is liability
management. Commercial organizations have obligations to their shareholders to protect
corporate assets; and they have regulatory obligations to protect regulated assets such as
personal data. There is no hard-and-fast measurement of "enough" but there is specific
guidance: corporations must demonstrate that they have taken reasonable, usual, and
customary measures to exercise due care in meeting those obligations. At any given point
in time, once enough spending and enough efforts have been taken to implement best
practices in security, there is little or no incremental value in additional spending.
Corporate assets will still be at some risk, but if business operations are impacted by a
future security event, the company can still demonstrate that they did all that they
reasonably could to do prevent and prepare. Regulatory sanctions may still apply, but the
company can still demonstrate due care, and avoid penalties being doubled or tripled for
negligence.
In short, there is a practical metric for commercial spending on security, and it's not
fundamentally based on effective protection so much as customary protection. That
motivates the enterprise security vendors to continually expand their offerings with new
technologies, to attract early adopters to use it, and then use the early adopters' example to
expand the definition of usual and customary measures. While the early adopters may have
chosen to use the new technology because of beliefs of effectiveness in their particular
environment, later adopters are less concerned with proving effectiveness, and more
concerned about demonstrating compliance. That's why enterprise security spending is at
a fairly steady state of continuing to pay for new security technologies.
84
But in the last decade or less, we've come to understand that in some government sectors,
as well as private-sector operators of critical infrastructure, effectiveness is actually
important. And unfortunately, it is very often the case that a new security technology
becomes available for commercial use, without any real demonstration of effectiveness in a
realistic environment. Both the commercial and research parts of my career, I've seen
many innovations work well in a limited test setting, but not work as intended in large
scale complex real world networks and systems. And it's no surprise! They were never
tested in such settings. In a very real sense, the early commercial adopters are the first real
testers. And even if effectiveness is actually demonstrated in some of a new security
product's vendors' customers, there is no guarantee that it will work the same for others.
That why I believe so strongly in the value of cyber-security experimentation and testing of
security innovations. I've seen first hand a new breed of researchers who are now able to
repeatably test innovations, scientifically measure their effectiveness in a variety of
conditions, and have the data needed to tune their innovations to operate better in more
large and complex settings. That means the anew technology can come to market along
with specific tests to measure how effective it is. Commercial organizations may adopt it in
order to keep up with the expanding definition of due care, but in the critical infrastructure
sector, potential adopters can make much more informed decisions, and actually measure
effectiveness using metrics that come with the new technology.
The second factor is easier to explain given the first. The path to commercial adoption has
often been through large security vendors who primarily want to acquire new technology
in order to add a new tool to the toolset that they offer customers. In the last decade, we've
seen a number of innovations in defending against increasing subtle malicious software
attacks. The vendors have taken some of them to market primarily to be able to get those
early adopters, expand the definition of due care, and up-sell the rest of their existing
customer base to buy the latest additions to the toolset.
As a result, much research was in specific silos of existing security problems, to come up
with incremental improvements. And with good reason -- the "market" for security R&D
was the commercial vendors who wanted incremental improvements.
Again, in just the last few years, R&D funders have made successful effort in directing
researchers away from existing silos, and toward new problems or known hard problems,
as well as problems that are specific to critical infrastructure, and emerging technology for
critical infrastructure, for example, the emerging smart grid. There may not be a large and
quantifiable market for the incumbent security vendors to spend on acquiring smart grid
technology, for some years to come. But the funding organizations have been directing
researchers to those problems anyway, and directing them to use scientific facilities -- the
testbeds, ranges, and community labs -- to prove the effectiveness of their innovations in
settings that are realistic to the environment that they are targeted to, even if those
environments seems like niche markets today. It's research that has to be done to be able
to secure our critical infrastructure as it evolves, rather than waiting for new assets and
85
new attacks on them, before even starting the R&D to protect them -- which is essentially
what happened with the early days of the commercial internet.
However, I'm sympathetic to the concern over continued spending. What I've said here is
that on the R&D side, the continued spending has recently been moving towards targeted
critical needs and scientifically demonstrated effectiveness in meeting those needs. But the
R&D spending will have to continue, because the technology that we need to protect is also
evolving. But I think that we've begun a re-orientation so that more of that R&D funding is
well-spent in terms of national interests. That's why I believe in the importance of
experimentation and test as well as needed research in measurement, metrics, assessment
and infrastructure for research and development.
86
I. In your testimony, you mention that education and training is vital for all individuals-from
users to professionals. Could you please address the role the federal government should play in
closing the cybersecurity skills gap? What can or should be done by federal agencies to improve
cybersecurity education at the K-12Ievel, undergraduate level, and graduate level?
There is no question that we are facing a serious shortage for security professionals. To
obtain a greater yield of defenders out of our STEM education, we have to make cyber
security more attractive to the learners at a younger age. The ability to provide grad
students with a realistic test environment to run real mal ware and conduct scientific
security work is great, but we need to something similar in spirit for undergrads and high
school students. Packaged courseware is good for moving down into undergrad teaching as
tech students make choices about what career to pursue. But more than courseware, we
need to develop techniques for engaging learners on their own terms, at the age where
their interest in the cyber world is beginning, rather than waiting until college or grad
school. That may take the form of science competitions, or youth oriented cyber
competitions, capture the flag games, or even computer and mobile gaming targeted at
building cyber skills. There are a number of organizations initiating these types of efforts.
At the K - 12 programs federal funding can begin by providing education and training of
teachers, development grants for technology, and innovative reach back from university
programs into K-12 institutions. Similar programs can advance educational opportunities;
while at the graduate level increasing funding for basic research in cyber security provides
increased funding for graduate students and new curriculum development.
(87)
88
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY LETTER SUBMITTED BY
REPRESENTATIVE FREDERICA S. WILSON
89
• The Transportation Security Administration would reduce its frontline workforce, which
would substantially increase passenger wait times at airport security checkpoints.
• The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) would have to curtail air and surface operations by nearly
twenty-five percent, adversely affecting maritime safety and security across nearly all
missions areas. A reduction of this magnitude will substantially reduce drug interdiction,
migrant interdiction, fisheries law enforcement, aids to navigation, and other law
enforcement operations as well as the safe flow of commerce along U. S. waterways.
• Furloughs and reductions in overtime would adversely affect the availability of the U.S.
Secret Service workforce, and hinder ongoing criminal investigations.
• Reductions in funding for operations, maintenance and analytical contracts supporting the
National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS) would impact our ability to detect and
analyze emerging cyber threats and protect civilian federal computer networks.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund would be reduced by
over a billion dollars, with an impact on survivors recovering from future severe weather
events, and affecting the economic recoveries oflocal economies in those regions. State and
local homeland security grants funding would also be reduced, potentially leading to layoffs
of emergency personnel and first responders.
• The Science and Technology Directorate would have to stop ongoing research and
development including: countermeasures for bio-threats, improvements to aviation security
and cyber security technologies, and projects that support first responders.
• The Department would be unable to move forward with necessary management integration
efforts such as modernizing critical financial systems. This would hinder the Department's
ability to provide accurate and timely financial reporting, facilitate clean audit opinions,
address systems security issues and remediate financial control and financial system
weaknesses.
Hurricane Sandy, recent threats surrounding aviation and the continued threat of
homegrown terrorism demonstrate how we must remain vigilant and prepared. Threats from
terrorism and response and recovery efforts associated with natural disasters will not diminish
because of budget cuts to DHS. Even in this current fiscal climate, we do not have the luxury of
making significant reductions to our capabilities without placing our Nation at risk. Rather, we
must continue to prepare for, respond to, and recover from evolving threats and disasters - and
we require sufficient resources to sustain and adapt our capabilities accordingly. We simply
cannot absorb the additional reduction posed by Sequestration without significantly negatively
affecting frontline operations and our Nation's previous investments in the homeland security
enterprise.
90
The Department appreciates the strong support it has received from Congress over the
past 10 years. As we approach March I, I urge Congress to act to prevent Sequestration and
ensure that DHS can continue to meet evolving threats and maintain the security of our Nation
and citizens. Should you have any questions or concerns at any time, please do not hesitate to
contact me at (202) 282-8203.
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction funding at $160 million or less in
FY 2013 will result in the termination of approximately $35 million in contracts and
agreements to industry for work in progress on major facilities tor environmental and
oceanographic research. This would directly lead to layoffs of dozens of direct scientific
and technical staff, with larger impacts at supplier companies. In addition, out year costs
of these projects would increase by tens of millions because of delays in the construction
schedule.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this look at possible impacts ora
sequester on the Foundation. Please let me know if you have any additional questions,
and as always, thank you /01' your strong support orthe Foundation.
Sincerely,
Subra Suresh
Director