Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement on President Donald Trump’s new executive order on cybersecurity:
“I’m pleased at Tom Bossert’s kind words acknowledging my work on cybersecurity, and I’m glad that the White House took note of the many thoughtful studies of this subject already done by experts in the field—including the Center for Strategic and International Studies Cyber Policy Task Force I co-chaired with Representative Michael McCaul. I look forward to seeing what concrete actions the administration takes to implement the recommendations we made, and I’m encouraged by the executive order’s focus on priorities of mine like cracking down on botnets, improving our cyber workforce, and strengthening deterrence against cyber aggression. The signing of this executive order is just the beginning. I’ll continue my work in Congress to improve our cybersecurity alongside other leaders like my friend Representative Jim Langevin and Chairman McCaul.”
Senator Whitehouse has authored comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, prepared the Senate Intelligence Committee’s first cyber report, and worked with members of both parties to call attention to the growing cyber threat. In 2010, Senator Whitehouse chaired the Intelligence Committee’s Cyber Task Force. As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism from 2011 to 2014, Whitehouse held regular hearings on the cyber threat, including hearings on the role of law enforcement in responding to cyber attacks and on the dangers that cyber-enabled intellectual property theft poses to American businesses. Last year, he introduced bipartisan legislation to disrupt botnets and make it easier to hold accountable those who create them. This year, Whitehouse delivered cybersecurity recommendations for Trump administration as a Co-Chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Cyber Policy Task Force.
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