WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, participated in a hearing today on protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure as it relates to pipeline cybersecurity. During the hearing, Senator Capito questioned officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) about recent actions taken in response to pipeline cyber incidents and gaps in our current oversight and regulatory structure.
HIGHLIGHTS:
ON THE NEED TO PREVENT FUTURE CYBER BREACHES: “I think a lot of the cyberattacks that you hear both government and private sector…the ability to get into the systems occurs by human error. Somebody opens an email. Somebody inadvertently makes it easier to breach the breach the systems…Training is the key…on a preventive measure to make sure that everybody realizes the ramification of doing that. Any other perspectives on how to cut down on that human error? A simple mistake can cause a major breach.”
ON A STATUS UPDATE REGARDING COLONIAL PIPELINE’S HACKED INFORMATION: “None of colonial pipelines operational technology was impacted by the DarkSide hack. However, there is still concern that the hackers have obtained information that can still remain a possible impact to Colonial’s operation. Does possession of such information pose a threat to their current operations as you know it? Or has Colonial worked with TSA to resolve any of these risks? And give me the status update on the information that they may still have or may still be out there.”