The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent federal agency that investigates every civil aviation accident in America as well as significant accidents in other modes of transportation (i.e. railroad, highway, marine and pipeline).  Congress gives the NTSB authority to "determine the probable cause of accidents and issue safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. In addition, the NTSB carries out special studies concerning transportation safety and coordinates the resources of the federal government and other organizations to provide assistance to victims and their family members impacted by major transportation disasters."  The NTSB has five Board Members, each nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve 5-year terms."

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Likewise, Congress should establish an agency to investigate cyber security attacks and make recommendations on how to prevent future security breaches.  We must have tight government-wide coordination in order to protect ourselves.  This agency should be tasked with creating a national response plan that responds to cyberattacks quickly and decisively.  The agency should also be responsible for notifying the targets/victims of these attacks as soon as possible.  A good model for this is the National Counterterrorism Center which "leads and integrates the national counterterrorism (CT) effort by fusing foreign and domestic CT information, providing terrorism analysis, sharing information with partners across the CT enterprise, and driving whole-of-government action to secure our national CT objectives.​NCTC is a center of gravity and leading voice that unifies counterterrorism intelligence for the homeland and abroad, with a record of sustained excellence across all mission areas."

 

A top priority for this agency should be "Counter-Ideological Operations and Warfare (CIDOW), a term for the strategy, activities, and programs dealing with (cyber terrorists). It is the strategy of simultaneously challenging their standing and their support in strategic communications, ideological veracity, and influence management.  It encompasses all aspects of influence operations, from public diplomacy to psychological operations." 

 

This was a strategy we used with al-Qaeda.  For decades, terrorist groups have achieved great success with a variety of negative narratives against America, primarily through Information Warfare, or "using truth, intelligence, propaganda, psychological warfare, and media in a unified effort to control the way an enemy's own ideology or policies are perceived by the global public."  In the past, terrorists have waged their extremist propaganda war by using everything from CDs to television to radio.  Now they have the enormous benefit of the Internet, which gives them the opportunity to reach into unlimited parts of the world.  Enough is enough.  We must – in real time – reframe this highly damaging, globally destructive narrative (read more here).      

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Evidence:

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United States.  National Transportation Safety Board.  "About the National Transportation Safety Board."  26 June 2018   

United States.  "Who We Are."  The National Counterterrorism Center.  5 Oct 2018

Malcolm Nance.  "An End To al-Qaeda."  New York:  St. Martin's Press.  2010

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