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Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as national security adviser, said that the administration intends to crack down on foreign hackers targeting America.
Waltz shared the details during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“We need to start going on offense and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences to private actors and nation-state actors that continue to steal our data, that continue to spy on us, and that, even worse, with the [Chinese hack], they are literally putting cyber time bombs on our infrastructure, our water systems, our grids, even our ports,” he stated.
“That is wholly unacceptable, and I think we need to take a much stronger stance,” he continued. “We need to start changing behaviors on the other side, rather than just constantly having this kind of escalation of their offense and our defense,” Waltz continued.
Hackers have been an increasing problem for businesses and the U.S. government this year, including attacks on the Trump campaign this summer.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and other agencies announced on Wednesday that Iranian hackers shared private Trump campaign information with President Joe Biden’s campaign in June and July, RSBN previously reported.
The agencies shared the details in a statement from the FBI National Press Office concerning the election integrity issue.
“Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” the statement read.
“There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied. Furthermore, Iranian malicious cyber actors have continued their efforts since June to send stolen, non-public material associated with former President Trump’s campaign to U.S. media organizations,” it continued.
Three Iranian men were charged in September for allegedly hacking President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The indictment names Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi, with multiple charges.
All three men were reportedly employed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and used a wide range of techniques to access current and former government officials’ digital information.
“These authoritarian regimes, which violate the human rights of their own citizens, do not get a say in our country’s democratic process,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “The American people, and the American people alone, will decide the outcome” of this year’s elections.
