Homeland Cybersecurity: Assessing Cyber Threats and Building Resilience

Homeland Cybersecurity: Assessing Cyber Threats and Building Resilience Written Testimony of Dmitri Alperovitch Executive Chairman, Silverado Policy Accelerator Before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security February 10, 2021 Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, Members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting me to testify at today’s hearing on cybersecurity. This is the policy arena I have spent my 25-year career in the technology industry exploring as a senior executive working with and advising some of the largest private sector companies and most sensitive government agencies in the country. Now, as the founder of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a new bipartisan public policy organization focused on national security, foreign policy, and cybersecurity, I am looking at ways to build upon my experience in the private sector to work with policymakers and strengthen our approach to new challenges that threaten our critical infrastructure and the backbone of our economy. Most recently as the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of CrowdStrike, which I helped to grow from an idea into the world’s largest cybersecurity firm, I witnessed the complexity and scope of the challenges that the U.S. government and businesses face in the cyber domain. Our adversaries in cyberspace are sophisticated and numerous, ranging from global criminal groups conducting ransomware attacks and stealing financial and personal data, to nation-states executing complex espionage campaigns, stealing intellectual property and launching highly destructive and disruptive attacks. Throughout my years at CrowdStrike, I saw firsthand that cybersecurity represents a growing part of a broader geopolitical struggle between the U.S. and its adversaries and competitors. This inspired my decision to retire from CrowdStrike last February to launch Silverado to advance American prosperity and global competitiveness in a new era of great power competition. Silverado will use a venture capital approach to accelerate bipartisan policy 1