US needs to do more make cyber attackers pay, Trump adviser says

16/12/2024 6:06

U.S. President-elect

Donald Trump's administration will examine ways to impose higher

costs on private actors and U.S. adversaries who wage cyber

attacks on America, Trump's pick for national security adviser,

Representative Mike Waltz, said on Sunday.



The comments come after U.S. allegations of a sweeping

Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that

targeted and recorded telephone calls of senior American

political figures.



The White House has said at least eight telecommunications

and infrastructure firms in the United States had been affected

and a large number of Americans' metadata was stolen in the

sweeping cyber espionage campaign.



Waltz did not say what the Trump administration would do in

response to Salt Typhoon but spoke more generally about the

incoming administration's approach. He said Washington for too

long had focused mostly on bolstering its cyber defenses.



"We need to start going on the 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," Waltz told CBS News' Face the Nation.



He also said the private U.S. technology industry could also

be helpful in making adversaries vulnerable as well as aiding in

U.S. defense.



Chinese officials previously have described the allegations

as disinformation and said that Beijing "firmly opposes and

combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms."