Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher hosted a roundtable discussion focused on critical cybersecurity challenges facing our country.  With representatives from industry and academia, the group emphasized a collective imperative to increase engagement and collaboration on emerging best practices to combat increased cyber threats to our energy sector.

Congresswoman Fletcher emphasized Houston’s role as the “energy capital of the world” and underscored the importance of working together in response to growing threats to our energy infrastructure.  

“I am so proud to represent this community in Congress, and today’s roundtable discussion demonstrated once again that members of our community are constructive and collaborative in making us more secure,” Congresswoman Fletcher said.  “Working together is essential to understanding, planning for, and responding to cyber threats.  Houstonians’ broad experience working around the globe brings important insights to our national cybersecurity conversation.  I want to thank Secretary Raimondo for engaging our community in the Administration’s discussions on this issue.”  

“Addressing growing cybersecurity threats is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and it is time for a whole-of-nation effort to address our cybersecurity challenges,” said Secretary Raimondo.  “As we tackle cybersecurity challenges, it is critical to our success that we don’t act in silos.  Businesses and government must work together to prioritize cybersecurity efforts, share best practices, develop a strong cybersecurity workforce, and launch innovative ideas that modernize our defenses at home.  I am thankful for Congresswoman Fletcher for her continued leadership and for providing us this forum to discuss this critical issue.”

During the conversation, Secretary Raimondo highlighted the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) efforts to define and address cybersecurity challenges and encouraged participants to continue to engage in NIST’s collaborative efforts with the energy sector to enhance the United States’ cyber defenses.

Recently, Secretary Raimondo announced at the White House Cyber Summit that NIST has launched a new Technology Supply Chain Security initiative.  The initiative will rely on private companies of all sectors and sizes, as well as government and academia, to contribute to the development of usable and effective domestic and global technology supply chain cybersecurity risk management practices.

The energy sector is a critical voice in the conversation on how new technology supply chain cybersecurity efforts could best be developed to address challenges.  Today’s discussion was an important first step in continued engagement to better understand and address our global challenges.