Jeb: Obama speeches no substitute for ‘basic’ cyber steps

Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush went after President Obama in the wake of a massive federal data breach, admonishing the White House on Monday for its “cultural failure” to take cyber threats seriously.

In a post to the publishing platform Medium, the former Florida governor said the recent hack at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was “emblematic” of the administration’s slow and ineffectual response to the obvious danger posed by foreign hackers.

{mosads}It’s believed that Chinese hackers accessed the records on nearly every current and former government worker, including Social Security numbers and security clearance background check files. Up to 14 million people could be affected.

“OPM officials knew this data was valuable, knew it was sensitive and knew it was vulnerable,” Bush wrote, referring to inspector general reports over the years that outlined myriad security shortcomings in the OPM networks.

“What use is it that President Obama issued an executive order or gave a thoughtful speech about cybersecurity if his own Office of Personnel Management  —  the human resources department of the entire U.S. government — failed to take basic steps to protect the sensitive personal information of millions of its employees?” Bush asked.

As the centerpiece of a daylong cybersecurity summit at Stanford University in February, Obama signed an executive order encouraging companies to better share cyber threat data with one another and eventually with the government.

Bush argued that such steps are mostly rhetorical and minimal, at best.

“Where is the accountability?” he asked. “What consequences will there be for political appointees or bureaucrats who failed to heed warnings and adequately protect these key databases? What will happen to Katherine Archuleta who served as the National Political Director For President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign before assuming her role as OPM Director?”

A growing chorus of lawmakers is calling for Archuleta’s resignation as she prepares for her second week of testimony on Capitol Hill. But the White House has stood by the OPM head.

“What message will it send to other managers throughout the government  —  and private sector  —  if there isn’t accountability?” Bush wondered.

The White House hopeful accused the Obama administration of hamstringing its military and intelligence community through poor budgeting.

Bush believes agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA) could help better protect federal networks from hackers if properly empowered.

“The NSA is critical to our defense against foreign cyber threats, and yet the political class in Washington has been more interested in treating the NSA as an enemy of the state rather than its defender,” Bush said. “We need to preserve and enhance the capabilities of the U.S. intelligence community and law enforcement to identify, deter and respond to cyber-attacks.”

Bush’s comments echo a contentious debate on Capitol Hill, where the Senate is close to passing its version of House-passed measures that would boost the amount of cyber threat data the NSA would receive from the private sector.

The measure has attracted mostly bipartisan support, but libertarians and privacy-minded Democrats have expressed fears that the information-sharing bill could simply shuttle more private data to the spying agency.

The White House has backed the House bills, but still encouraged lawmakers to tweak the language to assuage these privacy concerns. White House press secretary Josh Earnest recently told Congress to “come out of the Dark Ages” and move on cybersecurity legislation.

Bush called on Obama to more vocally “show leadership on Capitol Hill” and encourage the Senate to move on its companion piece of legislation.

Bush is the latest among his GOP rivals to use the OPM hack to bash Obama. Others, such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have said the hack is the result of Obama’s refusal to be strong with China.