Two Senators have expressed concern with a recent report showing that federal agencies were unknowingly conducting business in foreign-owned buildings, the Washington Examiner reports.
Sens. Steve Daines and Tammy Ducksworth brought up the issue following the publication of a January GAO report that highlighted the security risks.
"Federal agencies that occupy these buildings may not even be aware that they are occupying a foreign building," Daines and Ducksworth wrote in a letter Friday to acting GSA administrator Timothy Horne. "Yet, in some cases the space is used for classified operations and to store sensitive data. Given the highly sensitive information that is often stored at high-security leased sites, we are concerned with the lack of policies and procedures concerning the ownership of these sites."
The GAO contacted 14 agencies about the spaces they occupied and found that 9 of the 14 tenants were "unaware that the space they occupy is in a building that we identified as foreign owned."
The GAO also found that the GSA was leasing high-security space from foreign owners in 20 buildings to at least 26 federal agencies, including the FBI and the DEA. The building owners were based in Canada, China, Israel, Japan and South Korea.
"Federal agencies are among the top targets for cyber criminals, with many agencies experiencing thousands of attempted attacks daily," wrote Daines and Duckworth. "Agencies must have the information necessary to assess and address the risks to their high-security facilities, including cybersecurity vulnerabilities that exist in foreign-owned buildings."
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