Stop Letting Hackers Win: Pass the Lummis-Wyden Cybersecurity Amendment

America’s enemies aren’t storming our shores with tanks and planes – they’re breaking into our email, phone, and data systems. And right now, we’re making their job too easy.
 
The U.S. Senate can toughen up America’s defenses by passing the Lummis-Wyden amendment (S. Amdt. 3186) to the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. This bipartisan fix would finally force the Pentagon to use secure, encrypted communications – and end its costly dependence on a handful of Big Tech vendors.
 
The Scale of Attacks
 
In 2023, Chinese hackers broke into Microsoft-hosted government email accounts, stealing 60,000 messages from the State Department alone. A year later, another Beijing-backed group hacked into AT&T and Verizon, tapping phones of Americans that included presidential candidate Donald Trump and then-Sen. J.D. Vance.
 
But Vance’s conversations were kept safe. How? He relied on Signal, the end-to-end encrypted app that even the hackers couldn’t crack.
 
The obvious takeaway is that without end-to-end encryption, our most sensitive communications are one hack away from the front page of Beijing’s intelligence briefings.
 
The Lummis-Wyden Fixes
 

• Mandates encryption. The Pentagon must be required to use secure, end-to-end encrypted systems whenever possible.

 

• Ends vendor lock-in. No more being trapped inside Microsoft Teams or Google Docs. Interoperability will be the law, so new and better tools can compete.

 

• Saves money and boosts innovation. Opening the market to smaller, nimbler companies means lower costs and stronger security.

 
Why It Matters

Our military today is stuck in walled gardens built by giant tech firms that all too often proved eminently hackable. That’s bad for taxpayers and disastrous for national security. Hackers don’t need to break into every office at the Pentagon – they just need to knock down the door of one weak provider. The Lummis-Wyden amendment puts a lock on those doors.
 
Congress Must Choose Security
 
Congress can keep letting foreign spies read Cabinet-level emails and tap presidential phone calls, or it can finally demand that the Pentagon use the best tools available. This amendment is a wake-up call that we can’t defend the country with outdated software. Encryption and competition would at least give our country a fighting chance to keep China and other bad actors out of our business.
 
PPSA calls on the Senate to pass the Lummis-Wyden Amendment to stop giving hackers the upper hand. This measure will better protect our service members, the American homeland, and the private deliberations of our leaders.

DONATE & HELP US PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS