WASHINGTON — A panel discussion on cybersecurity held Wednesday was a first for the Capitol-to-Capitol program in Washington, D.C.
Whether it’s one person’s credit card number or an entire county’s elections, representatives of the Sacramento region say they want to be protected.
“We’ve never really seen a cyberattack on the scale of 9/11,” said Mac Clemmens, this year’s Capitol-to-Capitol chairman.
Clemmens says from law enforcement to agriculture, every industry represented at the program is vulnerable to major cyberattacks.
“I think we have a real wakeup call and our increasing reliance on technology is not being matched by our understanding of technology. So there’s a real gap,” he said.
“Most everything we know about ourselves is out there in the cyberworld,” said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Davis.
Garamendi led the panel discussion Wednesday. As a member of the House Committee of Armed Services, he says the U.S. is too vulnerable to cyberattacks on many levels.
He fears Sacramento’s power grids, energy and even elections systems could be hacked.
“Why would you go build a nuclear weapons system that’s a trillion dollars when you can hire a bunch of 18-year-old kids who’re able to hack into a system and literally shut down a critical infrastructure?” he told FOX40.
Garamendi says he’ll be working with his congressional colleagues to pressure the Trump administration to do more to prepare for cyberattacks, particularly on our elections.
On a local level, the Capitol-to-Capitol team says they’ll continue to protect the Sacramento area.
