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Manchin Chairs First Cybersecurity Subcommittee Hearing of 118th Congress

Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin

March 29, 2023

Senator Manchin questioned Department of Defense leadership on the upcoming Locked Shields Exercise, artificial intelligence, ensuring cybersecurity coordination

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Cybersecurity Subcommittee, led the first Cybersecurity Subcommittee hearing of the 118th Congress. Senator Manchin questioned Mr. John B. Sherman, Chief Information Officer at the Department of Defense (DoD), and Lieutenant General Robert J. Skinner, Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) on the upcoming Locked Shields Cybersecurity Exercise, utilizing artificial intelligence for DoD priorities and ensuring cybersecurity coordination across the Department.

On the upcoming Locked Shields Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Exercise:

“I would like our witnesses to expand on the importance of the Locked Shields cyber defense exercise, which pits teams of international allies up against NATO’s experts at the Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Estonia to simulate these attacks on critical infrastructure across an entire week. I will also proudly note this exercise is coordinated annually by our expert personnel within the West Virginia National Guard’s Army and Interagency Training and Education Center in Morgantown, West Virginia,” Senator Manchin said in part.  “We provided $2 million in appropriations last year for this Exercise to ensure we have the infrastructure and manpower not only to participate, but also to win in these scenarios. Has the Exercise been meeting your expectations?…How can we do a better job of coordinating participation across all levels of government?”

On March 21st, 2023, Senator Manchin invited leading national security organizations to participate in this year’s Locked Shields Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Exercise, the world’s largest international cyber defense exercise. The virtual exercise will be coordinated from Morgantown by the West Virginia National Guard from April 17th to 21st, 2023.

On evaluating and best utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) for DoD priorities:

“The practical implementation of artificial intelligence is a top priority for Ranking Member Rounds and myself…What tangible AI application has been the most successful?” Senator Manchin questioned in part. “How can we do a better job on this Committee and on Appropriations, which I’m also a member of, to organize DoD’s wealth of data and put it to use with AI?”

On ensuring cybersecurity coordination throughout DoD:

“The first CYBERCOM Commander, General Alexander, famously claimed that DoD is not one network, but rather more than 15,000 separate networks loosely coupled together. Do you agree that DoD networks are not currently rationally standardized in that there are many different cybersecurity service providers across the Department’s segments?” Senator Manchin continued.

A video of Senator Manchin’s opening remarks can be found here.
A video of Senator Manchin’s questioning of the witnesses can be found here.