Whether they are members of terrorist groups or agents of foreign countries, cyberhackers must know that breaching U.S. government systems has “consequences” and that the U.S. will “retaliate” when it is done, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.
King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, made the comments to “Fox News Sunday” during a discussion of a recent hacking incident, first revealed Thursday, at the Office of Personnel Management that likely compromised the personal data of four million federal employees.
“I believe we do [need to retaliate]. I don’t think we should announce what we are doing. I think the president and his administration have the capacity to respond once they find out through the malware signature who they believe this is,” King said. “There has to be a price to pay for this. How that is done, when it is done, I will leave to them.”
China is suspected of being behind the hack. Law enforcement officials have said it appears to have been the same Chinese hackers who attacked Anthem Insurance earlier this year, stealing the data of millions of customers.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, who was also on the program, said the problem in cyberwarfare is that “those on the offense have all of the advantages” because of the anonymity of most attacks.
“One of the big things we really have to do in addition to our defense is figure out when we are going to go on offense,” Schiff said.
