Sen. John McCain said both Congress and federal intelligence agencies need to make cybersecurity a much higher priority after WikiLeaks released thousands of CIA documents on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to do a lot more,” the Arizona Republican told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “If [the perpetrators] can hack the CIA, they can hack anybody.”
“My biggest worry is they showed a capability that they can hack into some of our most important secrets, our most important classified material, that’s what bothers me,” he said.
McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said his committee has made cybersecurity and evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election through hacking a top priority by establishing a cyber subcommittee earlier this year.
But he said the issue also falls under the jurisdiction of three other committees, including the panels on intelligence and the judiciary, which need to better coordinate their oversight and investigations with his panel’s subcommittee.
Asked if he thought Russia had any role in the CIA hack, McCain sarcastically responded: “No, never, never… somebody in the basement of his house smoking cigarettes in his underwear was responsible.”
The sharp retort seemed to be an attempt to poke fun at Trump’s assertion back in late September before his election that the DNC hacking could have been anyone from the Chinese to a “400-pound guy” lying in his bed.
Pressed on whether he holds the Russians accountable for WikiLeaks’ CIA document dump, McCain said there’s no way he could know right now but pointed to Moscow’s relationship with infamous NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Snowden has spent more than three years in Russia seeking asylum from U.S. spying charges.
“I can’t say that [the Russians are responsible], but it’s clear that WikiLeaks has had a Russian connection,” he said.
