Officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command gathered at the ongoing RSA Conference in San Francisco and highlighted the importance of collaboration and partnership to safeguard the U.S. critical infrastructure sector from cyberattacks.
Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, said the agency works with USCYBERCOM’s Cyber National Mission Force to share information, insights and expertise to build a collective defense against emerging cyberthreats.
“Our work with CNMF enables us to not only more effectively defend our nation’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks but also clearly demonstrate to our adversaries that there is a price to pay if you decide to attack American infrastructure,” Goldstein said.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Hartman, commander of CNMF, said the force shares threat intelligence from operations relevant to CISA’s mission, while the agency provides information from domestic cyber incidents to support the Department of Defense.
The officials said the partnership disrupted an Iranian targeting of an election reporting website prior to the 2020 elections. CNMF notified CISA that an Iranian actor had access to the website. The agency then took action to mitigate the threat.
