{"id":3183,"date":"2020-12-20T17:49:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T17:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=141635"},"modified":"2020-12-20T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T17:49:11","slug":"u-s-senators-urge-response-to-cyberattack-blamed-on-russian-hackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/20\/u-s-senators-urge-response-to-cyberattack-blamed-on-russian-hackers\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Senators Urge Response To Cyberattack Blamed On Russian Hackers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Two U.S. senators say the United States must respond to a widespread cyberattack that U.S. officials say was carried out by Russian hackers who managed to break into the computer networks of multiple U.S. government agencies.<\/p>\n
Senator Mitt Romney (Republican-Utah) said the intrusion “demands a response” and what would be expected is a “cyber-response.” But he said he was not sure the United States had the “capability to do that in a way that would be of the same scale or even a greater scale than Russia has applied to us.”<\/p>\n
Speaking on December 20 on U.S. broadcaster NBC, Romney also said he was disappointed in President Donald Trump\u2019s reaction to the data breach.<\/p>\n
In his first public comments on the incident, Trump on December 19 downplayed the seriousness and impact of the intrusion and cast doubt on whether Russia was to blame.<\/p>\n
Romney said Trump “has a blind spot when it comes to Russia” and doesn\u2019t want to recognize Russia as the “extraordinarily bad actor they are on the world stage.”<\/p>\n
He added that Russia goes against the United States “on every front” and the administration has “not been serious enough about how damaging an adversary Russia can be.”<\/p>\n
‘Russia Acted With Impunity’<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n Romney said experts on U.S. cybersecurity have determined that the intrusion came from Russia and was very serious and damaging, noting that the hackers got into the agency that\u2019s responsible for U.S. nuclear capacity and research into nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n He also called for a “rethink” at the Department of Defense and other agencies about U.S. cybercabilities — offensive and defensive.<\/p>\n “What this invasion underscores is that Russia acted with impunity,” Romney said. “They didn\u2019t fear what we would be able to do from a cybercapacity. They didn\u2019t think that our defenses were particularly adequate and they apparently didn\u2019t think that we would respond in a very aggressive way.”<\/p>\n