Here are the NSA general counsel’s cybersecurity warnings

Andrew Eversden

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The U.S. government needs to do more to protect itself in cyberspace as adversaries’ technological capabilities rise, according to the departing general counsel of the NSA.

Glenn Gerstell, who is leaving the NSA later this year, said the expanding threat landscape — caused by the combination of nation-state’s capabilities and the onset of technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and the internet of things — presented several challenges that the intelligence community must grapple with long after he leaves the agency.

“It is almost impossible to overstate the gap between the rate at which the cybersecurity threat is getting worse relative to our ability to effectively address it,” Grestell said at an American Bar Association event Jan. 15.

At the heart of the issue, he said, is the odd geopolitical dynamics of relying on countries considered adversaries for trade, like China, or sending American astronauts to the International Space Station, in the case of a Russian launch in December. The Russians, of course, have a well-documented record of attempting to breach, sometimes successfully, state voting infrastructure. And the Chinese have continuously stolen intellectual property from American business by breaching their networks, including those of defense contractors, which has ultimately led to the development of the soon-to-be released Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) out of the Pentagon.

“That cybertheft enabled China to rapidly rise to threaten not only our economic hegemony, but also, at least in certain places around the globe, our military position," Gerstell said.

Gertsell listed China as the first issue, using it as the best example of the challenges presented by the mix of technology and cybersecurity. China is home to Huawei, a tech giant that sells hardware for 5G telecom networks, prompting fears to several senior U.S. officials about putting Huawei products into U.S. networks, in addition to allies’ networks. The Federal Communications Commission recently banned its subsidies to rural telecom providers from being spent on Huawei products.

And with China’s economic and technological rise, the IC needs a whole host of new experts added to its workforce to counter its growth, Gerstell said, including experts in AI, metallurgy, biotechnology, quantum computing, crop genetics, port logistics and finance.

But there are some structural inhibitors that the government will have to adjust to better handle the threats. Part of the challenge the intelligence community faces in combating cybersecurity threat are the several silos throughout the IC, defense and civilian government agencies with jurisdiction over cybersecurity challenges. The potpourri of agencies with authorities is too great to manage a threat that Gerstell called “so complicated.”