STATEWIDE — Senator Angus King told an audience of cybersecurity stakeholders that cyber criminals are not facing real consequences for attacks on the U.S., and that needs to change.
Senator King appeared as a guest speaker at a forum hosted by Politico on Tuesday.
King said the country is moving in the wrong direction when it comes to cybersecurity, citing cuts to the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, known as CISA, and cuts to state and private sector funding for cyber defense. Another major concern, he says, is a lack of consequences for cyber attacks and those who perpetrate them.
“We’re still waiting for the response to the Sony hack. What was that? 10 or 12 years ago? We’re gonna respond at a time and place of our choosing. It hasn’t happened. Salt typhoon? no real response…this should be an all-hands-on-deck, hair-on-fire kind of thing, and I don’t see the administration moving in that direction,” King said.
He says two years ago the cost of cyberattacks worldwide was around $8 trillion, but in another two years it could reach $27 trillion. He’s co-sponsoring a bipartisan amendment with Republican Senator Tom Cotton that charges the Secretary of War with developing a national deterrence strategy for cyber attacks.
