WASHINGTON, D.C. –– This week, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) joined the “David Webb Show” to discuss his reintroduction of the “Cyber PIVOTT Act” and the urgent need to address cyber threats from China. The “Cyber PIVOTT Act” would address America’s cybersecurity workforce shortage by establishing a new full-scholarship program for two-year degrees, primarily at community colleges and technical schools, which are granted in exchange for required government service. 
 
This week, the Committee released an updated “China Threat Snapshot” detailing more than 60 cases of espionage conducted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on U.S. soil in the past four years, including the transmission of sensitive military information, theft of trade secrets, use of transnational repression operations, and obstruction of justice.
 
As cyber intrusions by malign nation-states and opportunistic cybercriminals grow in sophistication and frequency, America’s cyber workforce shortage presents a homeland security threat. Read the Committee’s “Cyber Threat Snapshot” here.

Listen to the interview here and read highlights below.

On cyber threats to the homeland from China:
 
“A big part of my responsibility is to just help educate the American people on this threat, cyber [insecurity] as a threat, and the shortages that we have as a nation, the weak points, in contending in cyberspace with China and the other bad actors.”
 
“We released…60 acts of espionage by the Chinese Communist Party over the last four years inside the United States…They infiltrated our infrastructure. They infiltrated our telephones. They got into all of the telecommunications networks…If you could visualize them being in our Verizon or AT&T cell towers with the ability to disrupt our telecommunications––it would really be no different than the Russians planting a satchel charge to blow the tower up. Yet, Americans and most people don’t equate the two.”
 
“China wants to unseat the United States as the global hegemon…If we go and try to defend Taiwan––an invasion of Taiwan––they can just call us up and say, ‘Well, we’re about to shut down all your water, or we’re about to shut down all your power’…That is a military tool at that point. So cyber defense is critical.”
 
“We’ve been building up [CISA] to defend the ‘.gov,’ as well as to partner with private industry to build their resilience. The challenge is that in the United States, we’ve had the perspective that private industry takes care of itself, government takes care of itself. Unfortunately, when it’s a nation-state, even entities as big as Microsoft [or] Colonial Pipeline––all these huge companies, they can’t defend themselves against a nation-state, and so the government has got to be more involved. So, we’re doing a paradigm shift there.”
 
On his bill to bolster America’s cybersecurity workforce:
 
“The greatest need in cyber defense is a workforce because we’re 500,000 people short––empty slots in cybersecurity today. Tomorrow it’ll be more. That’s why I introduced the ‘PIVOTT Act.’”

“Education is the key, but what we don’t need is, necessarily, a four-year degree in cyber. I mean, this is a technical thing––you can take a two-year degree and become a cyber defender.”
 
“It’s very similar to ROTC. A lot of people understand––you basically get your college paid for; you pay the government back by serving in the military X number of years. There is a positive ROI for the government. So, we’re doing this with cyber. A kid or a mid-career professional says, ‘You know, I want to pivot to a different career,’ and they go and get a two-year degree. We pay for it; they just have to go and serve in government. And they pay us back that way.”
 
“The individual pays back that investment, and then they’re free to go work in the private sector…because what a lot of people don’t realize is a lot of our infrastructure is private companies.”

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