Todd Hinnen was quoted in the SC Magazine article, “Floodwaters, Phishing Scams Rise as Hurricane Harvey Hammers South Texas,” regarding the increase in scams around Hurricane Harvey’s impact on South Texas.

On Friday when meteorologists were predicting the worst, Todd Hinnen, the former acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice Department, warned that critical infrastructure could be at risk and vulnerable to attack. “The operators of critical infrastructures like the power grid practice defense in depth – layered security controls intended to continue to protect the infrastructure even if one or more of them is compromised – and build redundancy into their systems to support business continuity,” said Hinnen. “When a networked system is brought under stress, whether by a hurricane, some other natural event, or a physical attack, however, the risk of compromise is always higher, and the data security experts responsible for protecting those networks must be on high alert to detect and prevent potential compromises or attacks seeking to take advantage of that vulnerability.”