Romney: U.S. Should Respond ‘of Like Magnitude or Greater’ to Russia Hack

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the U.S. government needed to respond “of like magnitude or greater” to Russia’s cyberattack.

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Let’s go to the massive ongoing cyberattack against the United States which affected countless agencies and private companies. Senate intelligence committee chairman, your colleague Senator Marco Rubio said it was an essentially an act of war. Colorado Congressman Jason Crow called it a cyber equivalent of Pearl Harbor. Is that how you see it?”

Romney said, “It’s extraordinarily severe.”

He continued, “What Russia has done is put in place a capacity to potentially cripple us in terms of our electricity, our power, our water, our communications.”

He added, “This is the same thing you can do in a wartime setting, so it’s extraordinarily dangerous, and an outrageous affront on our sovereignty and one that’s going to have to be met with a strong response. Not just rhetorical, important as that is, but also with a cyber response of like magnitude or greater.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.