Speaker Ryan appoints three to cyberspace commission

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Samantha Ravich, and Frank Cilluffo were appointed this week by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.

The commission was established by the National Defense Authorization Act to develop a framework for U.S. cybersecurity policy.

“As we face 21st-century challenges, cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly significant piece of our national security,” Ryan said. “These appointees bring significant depth and experience in the cybersecurity field. Rep. Gallagher has led the way on this issue in Congress, advancing policies to defend against cyber threats. Dr. Ravich brings a long career and immense expertise in intelligence, with special knowledge in critical regions of the world. And Mr. Cilluffo has served as a trusted advisor to government and intelligence officials in this field for decades. They are highly qualified to help shape our country’s cybersecurity policy, and I am grateful that they have agreed to serve.”

Gallagher (R-WI), who represents Wisconsin’s eighth district in Congress, served in the United States Marine Corps for seven years. While there he served as a counterintelligence/human intelligence officer and regional affairs officer for the Middle East/North Africa and was deployed twice to Al Anbar Province in Iraq as a commander of intelligence teams. He has also worked on the Central Command Assessment Team in the Middle East, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Ravich is the chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Transformative Cyber Innovation Lab and the principal investigator on FDD’s Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare Project. She is also vice chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Previously, she served as deputy national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, focusing on Asian and Middle Eastern affairs, and as the Republican co-chair of the National Commission for Review of Research and Development Programs in the United States Intelligence Community.

Cilluffo is the director of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute. Previously, he served as an associate vice president and the director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at The George Washington University and was special assistant to the president for homeland security under President George W. Bush.