[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 200 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S10079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CYBERSECURITY AND ASSURED MICROELECTRONICS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the most important technology connections 
are ones between people. Vermont is a place where people connecting is 
not only important to life, but is the very fabric of it. It was 
natural, I think, for me to see cyberspace as a continuation of 
connections like in Vermont. It is why I created one of the first 
websites in the Senate. It is why I have done hundreds of video chats 
with Vermont schoolchildren. And it is why I have ensured that among 
the billions of dollars of the Federal budget appropriated for 
cyberspace programs the executive agencies pay attention to the special 
perspective we have in Vermont.
  For all the machines connected to each other that make up cyberspace, 
the real connectivity is between the people using them, coding their 
software, and fabricating their hardware. Any cyber specialist will 
tell you the weakest link in security is the humans who use or create 
the programs and hardware. But they will also tell you that humans have 
the potential to be the most powerful part of the network.
  Much of my work has been about improving the way the human 
connections strengthen the technological ones. I created the Trusted 
Foundry Program and have supported its evolution, so people in the U.S. 
Government and critical industries know that the chips they put in 
their equipment come from a fab that has the highest level of security 
against meddling by bad actors. The men and women in Essex Junction, 
VT, at GlobalFoundries work at such a fab, and the IBMers there 
administer the program nation-wide.
  At Champlain College, I established the Leahy Center for Digital 
Investigation, so there would be a place where protecting and serving 
people in the physical world benefits from the online one. Their recent 
work to educate on collection of data from crime scenes that meets 
evidentiary standards for the Internet of Things--all the connected 
devices that now exist in our lives--has set a standard for the Nation, 
and their work with the U.S. Secret Service has improved the work at 
their premier cyber school for law enforcement in Alabama.
  This summer, I am proud that Norwich University announced at 
Vermont's first annual Cyber Symposium that their School of 
Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing would bear my name. I am proud 
because, for years, their students and faculty have been a national 
treasure. Among many, many achievements, Norwich created and I secured 
funds for the wildly successful DECIDE program for command and control 
cyber exercises with the Department of Homeland Security, now in its 
fourth expansion in this year's omnibus. Norwich's expertise in helping 
local governments prepare for and respond to cyber events, their 
education opportunities for undergrads, secondary degrees, guardsmen 
and reservists, and their upcoming expansion of their cybersecurity 
discipline to fully embrace the roles of information operations, 
machine learning, and AI-assisted decision-making in security, are all 
ways they are showing national leadership.
  The important connections between people go back to the earliest days 
of Vermont. We have always had to rely on each other. That has made us 
strong and resilient. Everyone here shows that we have continued that 
tradition into the digital age, using technology to reinforce and 
create new bonds between us. It has been an honor to support and 
strengthen that during my Senate career, and I look forward to seeing 
how Vermonters continue to grow in connection with each other and the 
world.

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