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but friend don't have to be. >> this is joe, when you're connected,■oalone. >> cox supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seato democracy. >> the chair of the senate intelligence committee, mark warner, talks about strengthening u.s. cyber security at a crowd strike summit in washington d.c. ♪♪ (applause) >> all right. here we are. >> ready to go. >> i am very, very happy to have senator warner here with us. i think most folks here know senator warner's background as a governor of virginia and the senator here in virginia and as

the chair of the select committee on intelligence, really one of the foremost experts i think up on the hill in that space, certainly fro national security perspective, but specifically as relates to cyber. it's such an important role that he has. i've had the pleasure of■ chatting with him previously on a number of these issues, having been in front of h them over the years. a lot of your constituents here. >> most important question, how many of you all live in virginia? [laughter] >>ho ofdon't, why not? >> no, i'm a little intimidated. like in most crowds i can go b cyber guy, but this is not■ toe cyber guy. >> it's important to get your

take, a lot of folks from the industrial they've been involved in the space for such a long time and they certainly understand the risk, but i'm a believer in holistic response which them having the authority that legislative branch is able to provide. that perspective, i think, is really, really important. >> okay, so far. i mean, congress has been so functioning recently. >> all right. >> you know, that was not a news flash for anybody in the room. so let's talkchina, we'll start with china. i know you've been vocal about china. many of us here are■e&zused on what's happening politically, some of the geopolitical issues, some of the intelligence that has come ou we've done a lot of work there.

adam's targeting the critical impact on companies. what do you see for the important steps for the u.s. public sector and the defense industrial base in managing china relationships, especially given a lot of companies are doing business in china. >> well, first of all, let know obvious, china is a great nation and enormously st, they level of competition with the united states that we've never really seen. the soviet union was a military ideological threat. it was never really an economic threat the way china is. china has in technology domain after technology domain at a level, frankly, the way america invested in the post sputniktel guy, a wireless guy and then

venture capitalist and one of the wake-up calls for me was huawei, and all of a sudden, not only is china running the table with an equipment vendor that i believe posed a n simultaneously flooding the zone of the technology standards setting bodies around wireless communication, it was you know, and my view on china evolved dramatically, back when increased trade, increased educational collaboration with the kind of notion the more eintegrate theeing to go into t traditional world order. i think when president xi took over in 2012, he made a conscience decisn say he would be willing to sacrifice growth and personal freedom to maintain the dominance of the communist party. changed chinese law in 2016-2017 time frame to make absolutely clear for any company in china, this is one

of the reasons why i'm on the bytedance, tik tok issue, is t the day that company has to be responsible to the ccp, not to shareholders or customers. so starting in about proud tha fully functioning in the congress, which is not a high od classified road shows, we would brief industries after industries, about challenges of doing business with china. we didn't say decouple, but beware, property theft by china, china more strategic goal. byte logy, they hoped to dominate and interesting to see the evolution, pre-covid, we got some pickup, entirely. i think then in the aftermath of covid, the aftermath of

putin's invasion of uaine, the owe pressive ways that people were treated in covid and increasing amount of chinese aggressiveness, companies are waking up and the interesting thing, every interest group or every industry group would come and at least take the brief, with the exception, i say this with concern for my own private equity. too many private equity companies were m on them. and this is an ongoing in the case of huawei we're spending dollars to rip and repl huawei equipment. and john cornyn and i decided we needed to bring the chips

back. and concerns for bytedance in terms of data collected but on tik tok, more on the propaganda tool, 170 million americans the 90 minutes o and algorithm, many young people ■n tik tok, a slight shift in the algorithm can mean suddenly you're getting news, taiwan is a part of chiuld win in ukraine. how we deal on the cyber side, china's very good. you guys know that as well as a blanket statement that you know, we need to obviously collaborate with companies and we also need, i think, to be more aggressive at taking down

i think we need to be more aggressive in pushing back against influence operations within the realm of what we can talk about in this this was mor russia. we were very aggressive in 2019s ira in russia and showing ways, we were know the going to sit back and■e punching bag. unfortunately from cyber crime to the change slash health care hack, we're not as prepared in march of 2024 as we were in march of 20, which is hard for me to say since i'm a democratic president and we were under then, and china with our critical infrastructure. let's hold the election for a minute because i want to talk

about that in a mome. concept here talking about holding people accountable and how do we push back, i've said for a long time that not computers attacking computers. we're going to see that with ai. but with the human beings today that are physically behind these attacks that are programming, they're identifying the targets, they're collecting and analyzing the intelligence, a lot of i ai, there are still human beings involved, what we can do on the private sector side is protect our infrastructure. we've got to constantly play defense. there's no offense from the private sector. what is it that the government can do, should be doing with these individuals that are hiding in and chinese, elsewhere in the world. law enforcement can't get access to take them off the field and therefore, the attacks continuing innistopped. what are the levers they use? >> we can use sanctions there

were efforts a with chinese pla officers, at least we put sanctions on and indicted and i don't think again, we've been nearly aggressive enough. i think there are both-- there's law enforcement prosecuting here in america and touched that puts a-- you lock them in in their country. but also, our abili to of disrupt some of their networks, our ability to disrupt some of the cyberagain, week, it was a week plus after thenge in united health care hack before we were even on the path towards, you know, identifying the bad guys. we have to be, i don't think we can do this as government alone, we have to work with you guys and others in the space of identifying and

again, frankly more on the the defensive side. >> so, i know-- i mean, i think one of the most important things from the government perspecti i to someb administration earlier today about the need to have more coordination across the how do we bring about the authorities, capabilities, resources of all the different intelligence agencies to have a more approach and a more aggressive approach so we can do more disruption, identification, et cetera? there have been pockets of success, but i don't know that it's been as coordinated and as effective as it could be with all the resources. >> i think there is this i mean, as somebody that does not want a formal decoupling between our economies, i think that would be a mess and we clearly have our friends in the state department who want to ma trying to say, we don't want total rupture with china. a tl

strategy and needs to be coordinated, but the flip of the issue is, when it comes to china, they have not stepped back on any of their penetrate infrastructure, any of attempts to-- they've not on information and disinformation as say russia on elections, they're getting better at it. if they'reot cutting back their efforts for us to kind of-- i'm not saying we've unilaterally disarmed, but we do■8 need■e to, i think, be wilg to be a little more aggressive. >> is there -- i've oftentimes talked about this risk the risks from cyber having similarities with nuclear lear going off in a major city would be catastrophic to the world, but is there an opportunity to have those types of discussions

similar to nuclearproliferation? >> i think it's possibly a couple of comments. one there's more expertise in this room, you can correct me ifwrong, but in the late '90s when there with as an effort to try to set some level of international cyber rules that say, we're not going to tack health care systems or, it actually was the united states that didn't want to go through with that when china and russia did because we felt we were far enough ahead that an international standard might not be good for us. i mean, i think that might have been short term vision over a long-term vision,two, i think o things that has surprised me is that we have not seen any of the war, which my top priority right now is not having america walk away from ukraine, it would be a historic mistake of hto proportions, but i think one of the things that i've been surprised at, and i think most people have been

we've not seen russia use the kind of type of attacks on a grand scale that we expected. now, part of that is because darn good at defense and companies like yours and others, and the a-ga conflict, but i think it still exists and i do think we should be conscious of that and the-- and a little bit, again, with more, appears to be more cyber criminals in the change/united health care attack right now. you know in russia you may be an agent at guy and a cyber ransomware guy by night, but the level of attack that's basically stopped billing for

and docs for a number of weeks, that could be hugely problematic. i think a year or so ago took for about a week. the notion of no rules of the road around what's on or off limits or what kind of, you know, if you attack, i would argue if you attack a health care system, lower attribution standards and we excuse if you're a nighttime criminal or work for a daytime government. having a broader understanding on that i think would help all the parties involved. nk you're right. i think there's going to have to be more discussion of rules of the road as you call it, but there has to be a framework and some of that's done with a carrot and some is done with a stick and that's what human nature is, i think, and if there is understanding ofare, a you cross this line, this is what the results result is

going to be. let's talk about the election, i think it's on a lot of people's mind. we talked about it earlier today. adam w talking about it. i've been involved, when i was in the bureau back in 2008 and it wasn't pcized at the time and it's been publicized and actually president obama has talked about it when then senator obama's campaign was targeted and senator mccain's china, which was clear espionage, they were collecting to understand what each of thei military, financial and et cetera. and identified the russian in the dnc in-- >> i know and our committee did the bipartisanh interference. >> i read four volumes. four out of five. >> i've not gotten to five, i read four cover to cover and inh

i appreciated and the opportunity to speak to folks about that was critically important, i thin national security. when we looked and we saw in 2018. we saw 2020. we saw 2022, other pieces of targeting by beyond russ,iran, criminal elements. when we look forward to 2024 being in a huge election here in the united states, but also broadly, democracies around the world. where to you see what the u.s. can do in advance of these likely attacks torotect u.s. citizens in our democratic process? >> i appreciate you asking that and i've said this in another form and i know mad in the administration. unfortunately, sitting right here i think we're less prepared in 2024 as we were in the equivalent time in 2020. do i say that? in 2020 i knew who the players were and they were identified. i dot have that complete

clarity for a variety of personnel shifts and factors that i will mention. and we're in a deeper pile of hurt. numbere, you know, countries have learned our adversaries, and frankly even some that are that we have evidence we can't talk about of wanting to interfere. this is remarkably effective and really cheap. lot cost than building a tank or aircraft carrier if you want to massive misinformation at a nation like ours. secondly, unfortunately, due to the political inenvironment we live in whole lot americans in 2024 that don't trust anything in our system, including our electoral system than wasat's just a fact of lif and amplification of crazy theories has a lot more we tal

briefly behind stage. the missouri case argued in the supreme courtus governor is not successful, it scares the dickens out of me, because this case basically said voluntary media platforms and the government should be somehow precluded. this is coming on the heels of when mark zuckerberg a went back and forth in late 2016 and when he said of course, there's no russian activity on facebook. he squtly okay, if there is, show me and let's work together and that started a collaborative cooperative relationship between most of platforms and cisa, fbi, n nc lv■ñ)ach of 2020. we really from july when this case was put forwardid january,o

communication at all with any of the major platforms about election information and misinformation. at's crazy. we've shaken up the lawyers enough and that is starting, but i think, again, those channels of communication and o platforms, but frankly with the outside researchers, with private sector entities like you guys who are identifying mid disinformation and election tactics, i don't think we're as farfinally, and this, i think, was adam's presentation, i'm going to have him come by and talk to me and the staf you introduced ai which brings a level of speed and scale to what used to be kind of almost■ ■kone-off, you know, misrepresentations or box that had a russian manipulating that can't use the right kind

of english language, bots, and that's out there with the ai tools out there. frankly we're not going get in place a set of guardrails legislatively, the closest we're going to get on ai, i was at the munich conversation and getting thewitter and tik tok, a voluntary, instead of ai protocols for elections issues, elections. it would require water marking, and ifmanipulating, i think there's interested in doing legislative activity on, i've got a bill on. it would require the tech companies to kind of take down and help voluntary basis with no, at least to ■r■x,.

and finally, because of some of the figures, because of some of the presidential candidates and frankly some of the figures in the house who are so over the top, i mean, i never thought the republican party would be leading a jihad against the fbi or at as of the republican party. you know, there was a relucks reluto name who is the top elecn official for fear that individual would be a target for harassment. this is very much on my radar we're going to do-- the committee is going to do some public hearings on it, but i'm all in because, you know, we had enough differences between our country and amongst americans and we ought to be able to fight that out in an election in a fairway. and we do not need't take to the question of the other half, which is the election machinery which i think we're still in pretty good shape, but as you see,■ mi

the voluntary agreements na were put together, again, under president trump, like the eric system sharing voter rolls so you don't have dead people voting between states or people moving. people literally leaving and-n■m understanding, certain counties leaving that cisa systems i think they're called the einstein systems voting precinct level of protections because of concerns of how washington interference, that's the second half making sure the systems are protected. i feel better about that than i do about the misinformation disinformation. >> now,he infrastructure piece, because of the disparate system the way our systems with the thousands of counties and 50 states, som and a single point of failure and the type hack breach to impact broadly, but

the misinformation piece and the sowing of divisiveness and the creation of the fact that-- or the belief that our systems can't be trusted or officials can't be trusted or law enforcement can't be trusted. we know that the adversaries are targeting both sides of the same issue. >> rit. >> they don't care if you're pro second amendment or anti-second amendment. they don't care if you're pro-life or pro-abortion. theyzb dhey amplify the message so that you get into an argument with your neighbor and by sowing that divisiveness, because we are pe n case in point, this group probably knows, in 2016 in texas there wa-- in houston there was a group kind of a texas successionist pretty far right group and there was a group of muslim americans in

say protectors of muslim americans in texas and they cread fake sites they were going to have a protest and without the intervention of the houston police we would have had violence and injuries. that was ■bchild's p what could exactly to your point, ohat cou result in violence. >> when we have a common enemy we're stronger, i think. when we're fighting internally we're incredibly weaker. national security is not a partisan issue. if there's a threat to the united states, come together whether you're on the left, whether you're on the right, you've got to come together in unity, i think, to protect this nation. senator, you've been, i ink, just a great leader in fighting in a nonpartisan way and to go ments i work in the only place in the member, a gang member is

a good thing. i'm part of a bipartisan gang, s here. >> we've an opportunity to chat for a half hour back stage and f time, but i want to thank you for being here and thank you for everything you've done to try to keep our country safe and continuing your leadership to help these citizens of your state and the citizens of this country to be in a better place. >> thank you, sean, list you've got a lot of expertise in this room, you know, on these targets, whether it's guardrails around ai, whether it is election security, we didn't even get intoransomware r us for our about fiber, and cisa let's get those out. a five year implementation schedule, which is way too long. for business, i

don't pretend to know these issues at the level you do, but i could not agree with you more. these are not partisan issues, it is national security and much of this involved technology, it's frankly, a future path splitr than a left/right split and for a lot of the guys and gals that i work with, that future stuff scares the dickens out of them, too. i'm wide open for business how to do a better job at this. >> please join me in thanking senator warner. [applause] ♪♪ >> the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span celebrates 456y congress like no other. since 1979 we've been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government.

taking you to where the policies are debated and decided all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. and we head now live to the floor of the u.s. senate where members today will be voting for the second time to advance a nomination of jose javier rodriguez to besecretary. his nomination stalled last year after two senate democrats voted against him and later, lawmakers will be working on birt to repeal a usda rule allowing u.s. to import beef from the guest chaplain, reverend adolphus lacey, senior pastor of the bethany baptist church, brooklyn, new york, will open the senate in prayer.