Fox News Channel - Transcript

Interview

MR. SCOTT: Computer hackers could be the new terror threat. They could take down power plants, trains, water plants, oil refineries. So just how vulnerable are these facilities? How bad could the impact be to our economy?

Joining us now, Texas Congressman Michael McCaul. He's a member of the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology.

Congressman McCaul, the bigger committee is Homeland Security. You're a member of that committee. The Department of Homeland Security has been criticized for maybe not thinking far enough outside the box for expecting another 9/11 attack when a cyber attack could be even more devastating. Do you buy that argument?

REP. MCCAUL: Well, to some extent that is true. Since September the 11th, we've been very focused on physical attacks; that is, hard attacks in the physical world, and not the virtual world where you could have a cyber attack. We know that 25 countries are developing cyber warfare programs.

The good news story is the Idaho National Labs and Homeland Security did discover on their own a vulnerability, which they were able to fix and then mitigate the damage, but the question is how many other vulnerabilities are out there and what needs to be done.

MR. SCOTT: In that vulnerability assessment, what they did is they simulated an attack hacking into a power plant's computer system, right?

REP. MCCAUL: That's correct, sir.

With the click of a mouse, you could literally bring down a power grid. Imagine that happening all across this country. It would be devastating not only to the people of the United States, but the economy and everything else. So the idea of hitting the power grids, the oil and gas sector -- the financial networks are very vulnerable to a cyber attack.

And so we're working very hard in the Congress with the Homeland Security Department to get a better handle over this situation.

MR. SCOTT: But the reports are that Homeland Security was charged with doing more of this four and five years ago, and really hasn't gotten around to it.

REP. MCCAUL: And that's where, you know, Congress' oversight comes in. Again, I don't think the proper attention has been given to this issue since September the 11th. We're going to ratchet up that pressure on the administration to make sure that attention is paid to this very, very important issue.

MR. SCOTT: Are we being alarmist here, or is this a real threat?

REP. MCCAUL: No, I think the -- we've had several hearings on this. I think the testimony's very clear that there are many, many vulnerabilities about there.

The hackers are usually one step ahead of us. And what I proposed yesterday was -- our Department of Defense has a cyber warfare program. Why isn't the Department of Homeland Security working hand-in-glove with our Department of Defense to better protect the United States from a cyber attack?

MR. SCOTT: Texas Congressman Michael McCaul, thank you.

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