Leidos CEO Tom Bell described how the company works to help the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other federal and private-sector entities protect critical U.S. infrastructure from a growing number of cyber threats during a Breitbart News discussion on border security, public safety, and American sovereignty.
Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle asked Bell about CISA’s cybersecurity mission and what the agency should prioritize as threats to American technological infrastructure expand, including potential threats involving artificial intelligence (AI) particularly from China.
“Little tip of the hat: President Trump in Trump 45 created CISA, and it was genius to do so because he recognized early that there was a significant cybersecurity threat to our nation’s critical infrastructure, and he formed an organization to do something about it,” Bell said.
“What was the something? It was to bring together the best understanding of what the threats were, and then to operationalize how we counter those threats,” he continued.
“The fact is, ever since that eight years ago, well, six years ago, I guess, or so, those threats have multiplied,” Bell said. “It’s not that the threats have become more adroit; it’s that there are now more players who can be credible threat actors.”
“So it’s not so much that the critical infrastructure of the United States is under a more sophisticated attack per se. It’s that more attackers can be attacking that surface space,” he continued.
“And so what we need to do as a nation, and what I know Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin is very focused on is reinvigorating CISA to form a coalition, because as you very well know, our nation’s critical infrastructure is a very federated space with private utilities,” Bell said. “Every municipality has their own water and wastewater treatment plant. All of those are vulnerable.”
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