Congressional delegation talks collective cybersecurity in trip to Netherlands, Estonia and United Kingdom

Reaching out to allies overseas, a bipartisan congressional delegation recently headed to the Netherlands, Estonia and United Kingdom to discuss their cybersecurity approaches and ways to improve both information sharing and collective defense.

The trip was led by House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and included fellow subcommittee members U.S. Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rob Menendez (D-NJ), as well as House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairman Dave Joyce (R-OH). While abroad, they met with a series of high-level officials, industry partners and others.

“After a series of productive meetings, it’s clear that America’s international partnerships are crucial to ensuring our nation’s cyber defense,” Garbarino said. “It was encouraging to hear the positive feedback of all three countries’ engagement with CISA, as well as their hopes to expand cooperation in the future. Our allies look to the United States for leadership on technology innovation, regulatory structure, and best practices for cyber resilience, as we know cyber threats are not bound by borders. Like the U.S., they face cyber threats from Russia and China, and these threats were at the forefront of our conversations.”

Ostensibly, the delegation’s main goal was to evaluate partnerships maintained by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). As part of this, they discussed overlapping strategies between the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy and the Netherlands’ Cybersecurity Strategy 2022-2028, collaboration between the Estonian Academy for Security Sciences and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) on cybercrime enforcement and workforce training, as well as the partnership and developments followed by CISA and the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

“There are no borders in cyberspace. Close collaboration with our most trusted allies is essential to securing our networks at home and our interests abroad,” Swalwell said. “As the lead Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee’s Cyber Subcommittee, I was proud to join my colleagues in discussing how to expand upon existing international partnerships that reduce risks to critical infrastructure and eliminate ransomware. I look forward to building upon CISA’s global presence to strengthen cooperation with our allies.”

On a separate note, Joyce pointed to the trip as an opportunity to gather information on how CISA’s international cybersecurity capacity building efforts are funded and what results from that funding. He noted that work to enhance cybersecurity defenses will be ongoing, given how significantly cyber attacks can impact both the economy and national security in an increasingly connected world.