Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, believes the U.S. is woefully unprepared, facing 21st century threats with obsolete technology and old ways of thinking. “I would argue from a national security standpoint, we may be investing in the best 20th century military money can buy, and we ought to be thinking a lot of the conflict of the 21st century is going to be in cyber and misinformation and disinformation,” Warner remarked during a panel discussion at South by Southwest.
Warner has introduced the Honest Ads Act to require heavily trafficked websites to disclose information about ads purchased on their sites, but said that alone would not be enough to protect against interference in the U.S. democracy.
He also lamented the federal government’s inability to attract cyber talent, pointing to lower pay, the protracted hiring process, and a massive backlog of security clearance requests as hindrances.