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King: Defensive Efforts Falling Short In Battle Against Cyber Attacks

At a meeting Thursday of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Maine independent Sen. Angus King grilled Defense Department officials over efforts to defend the country against cyber attacks. 

King said simply bolstering defenses against cyber-attacks is not an effective strategy.

“Just being on the defensive is not going to work in the end," he said. "If you are in a boxing match and you can bob and weave, and you are the best bob-and-weaver in the history of the world, if you can’t punch back, you are going to lose that boxing match.”

King said the U.S. must make clear that it will punch back and do damage to the computers of the offending nation.

Maine independent Senator Angus King says the u.s. cannot simply bolster its defenses against cyber-attacks, but must punch back at offending nations. He told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today that cyber attacks will continue until the US makes a stand.

"So far there haven’t been very much in terms of price paid, whether it was Sony or Anthem Blue Cross or the government personnel office or our elections," he says. "There have to be consequences or otherwise everybody is going to come after us, not just Russia."

And King says simply threatening to retaliate is not enough, the US must act against those who would damage the nation’s computer infrastructure.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.