Dear Chair Hefner and Committee Members: My name is David Dunmoyer, and I am the campaign director for Better Tech for Tomorrow, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I am grateful for the opportunity to testify before you today and to submit this written testimony.
This committee’s work, and today’s topic in particular, is critically important to ensuring privacy, safety, security, economic stability, and human flourishing in Texas. Hostile foreign entities present grave threats to Texas’ economy, security, intellectual property, critical infrastructure, values, and way of life. These threats are more pronounced and scalable with the increased digitalization of our economy and society. For example, recent cyberattacks on water infrastructure systems throughout the nation demonstrate the frailty and inadequacy of existing defenses. As state water systems become more digitalized, the attack vectors are growing without commensurate growth in cyber security and preparedness. Furthermore, the explosion in artificial intelligence makes this challenge even more difficult. Unfortunately, the history of public policy for critical infrastructure cybersecurity is punctuated by a reactionary, fragmented system of governance.
This testimony will frame the problem, survey the challenges posed to critical infrastructure in the age of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI), highlight state and federal responses, and, ultimately, provide concrete policy recommendations to help Texas meet these challenges and be a national leader on critical infrastructure cybersecurity.