Quick Hits

*** Interior Secretary David Bernhardt grounded the department's fleet of non-emergency drones because of cybersecurity concerns. In a Jan. 29 order, Bernhardt stated that "in certain circumstances, information collected during UAS missions has the potential to be valuable to foreign entities, organizations, and governments." The Interior Department "is taking action to ensure that our minimum procurement needs account for such concerns, which include cybersecurity, technological considerations, and facilitating domestic production capability," he said.

The move is in line with a presidential determination that the U.S. must spur growth of a domestic drone and unmanned aerial vehicle industry to end the nation's reliance on cheap, Chinese-made models. Officials have long been concerned that drones designed to collect and transmit images and data to cloud systems that support the storage and analysis of that data could be subject to interference from the Chinese government and military.

*** The House Homeland Security Committee unanimously voted to approve legislation that would grant the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency administrative subpoena powers to obtain subscriber information for vulnerable IP addresses associated with critical infrastructure. It is a companion to a bill first introduced in the Senate late last year.

"This legislation is based on a simple premise we've all become familiar with: if you see something, say something," said Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), the bill's main sponsor. "We are taking a proactive step that gives CISA the ability to say something when they see something."