GOP Rep. Kinzinger: Cyberattack Approaching ‘Actual, Direct Act of War by the Russians’

On Friday’s broadcast of Fox News Radio’s “Guy Benson Show,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) stated that he believes the cyberattack on the federal government will make the OPM hack “pale in comparison” and “is the biggest story of the year, probably, besides coronavirus.”

Kinzinger said, “So, this is the biggest story of the year, probably, besides coronavirus. We don’t know the depths of what’s happened. What we do know is we think these hacks started in March, maybe even before. We had no idea. … So, this makes the OPM hack that took anybody that had a security clearance’s information, this makes the terrible damage that Edward Snowden did to our national defense and our nation, and I think it’s going to pale in comparison to this. I — there’s a lot we need to know, but this is starting to approach an actual, direct act of war by the Russians.”

He added, “This is going to warrant, probably, one of the stronger, if not the strongest responses we’ve ever had to the Russians. And frankly, if we cannot have a proportional response with just the cyber realm, there may be a place for kinetic action against, for instance, Russian proxies or Russian infrastructure.”

Kinzinger concluded that without a strong response, more cyberattacks from hostile powers will happen.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett