House Inspector General: 'Everybody' Needs to Fight in the Current Cyberwar

Whether it’s a nation state-sponsored hack or simply a teenager with a laptop, Congress comes under cyberattack on a daily basis, said House of Representatives Inspector General Theresa Grafenstine. But this is not a challenge specific to the House. The country is in the middle of a cyberwar, she told the audience on Oct 7 during the National Town Hall Meeting on Minority Underrepresentation in Cybersecurity in Washington (DC). And to effectively compete in this war, the US is going to have to bring every able-bodied individual into the fight.

“If we think we're going to engage in this with only half of our soldiers, we're going to lose; they're going to eat our lunch,” she said. “We need to make sure we're getting everybody involved; every single one of us.” This approach means reaching beyond the typical selection of cybersecurity job candidates and actively training and recruiting individuals from the country’s minority populations.