The government must upgrade the digital weapons it uses to defend federal networks from nation-state and criminal hackers, Homeland Security Secretary Gen. John Kelly said Tuesday.
Kelly cited “nation-state actors with extremely sophisticated tools,” “lone wolves” and “cyber terrorists that simply buy malware on the internet” as top cyber adversaries during his first major speech as secretary at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.
Government risks being outgunned in cyberspace because of the “plodding pace of bureaucracy,” Kelly warned during prepared remarks, though he skipped over that section in his formal address.
Allowing digital defenses to develop at government pace is akin to “sending troops to take Fallujah armed with muskets and powdered wigs,” Kelly warned in those remarks, adding that “our federal cybersecurity needs heavy artillery.”
Kelly warned during the speech itself that cop-proof encryption systems are making it much easier for terrorists to recruit and plan operations.
“These individuals are becoming harder and harder and, I predict, eventually impossible to detect,” he said.
Kelly said he has no update about a long-delayed executive order on cybersecurity the Trump administration floated during its first weeks in office but then abruptly pulled.
“I’m standing by with bated breath. I can’t wait,” Kelly said.
The secretary also talked up cybersecurity cooperation between government and industry, touting President Donald Trump’s outreach to the private sector. Kelly himself recently discussed cybersecurity with leaders at Microsoft, he said.
“It’s something that certainly President Trump has taken on and is organized and is very, very involved in outreaching,” he said. “The government, god knows, can’t do it by itself.”