Karen Gibson, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, said in an interview that she’s more concerned with a successful cyberattack on the Capitol than another domestic terrorist attack like the one that struck the Capitol January 6th, Politico reports.
“Our networks … have attempted intrusions every single day. And so, cybersecurity for me is a much greater concern than the prospect of thousands of people storming the West Terrace,” Gibson said in an interviewed aired Saturday on CNN.
The US has been beset by a series of cyberattacks by foreign actors, primarily coming in the form of ransomware attacks on some parts of critical national infrastructure like pipelines, that have impacted primarily private companies, although one attack hit a software platform used by federal and state agencies.
Government agencies are popular targets of cyberattacks from foreign governments, which are not just limited to defense or intelligence agencies.
“Members have sensitive information that they would not necessarily want to have disclosed that may be in documents. Much of what we do is public. And meant to be so,” Gibson said. “But I would worry about … nation-state actors or others who might try to just really cripple the government’s ability to function by locking down cybercommunications networks.”
A 33-year veterans of the US military, Gibson was a senior intelligence officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and she replaced Michael Stenger after the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.