Last week, a large-scale cyberattack targeting AT&T and Verizon infiltrated the phones of U.S. Government officials. Representative Laurel Lee (R-FL) discussed the attack and her Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act introduced in September during a recent appearance on Fox Business's Mornings with Maria, emphasizing the necessity of her bill and what future cyberattacks could be like.
While China has denied being behind the attack, two FBI officials have encouraged Americans to use encrypted messaging apps to prevent data theft.
"That is the one thing that the FBI came out to tell us recently, is to acknowledge China has successfully infiltrated the personal phones, the personal information of a number of government officials, and what's more, we also know that as part of this action, they have infiltrated some of America's critical infrastructure. So we need to be concerned now about things like our electricity grid, critical infrastructure, [and] water supply. They are clearly, aggressively collecting information about American officials and about our infrastructure," said Rep. Lee.
As a result, Rep. Lee explained how her bill would "have the FBI and [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)] over at [the Department of Homeland Security] really make an assessment of the scope and the nature of the depth of this damage and infiltration and help us, as Congress, prepare a mitigation strategy. So they will prepare a classified briefing for Congress every year to make sure that we understand where we are and how we can start with mitigation."
Host Maria Bartiromo asked what China or another adversary could do with information obtained via cyberattacks, to which the Florida Congresswoman said, "The possibilities here are really endless."
"When it comes to public figures, it can certainly be trying to understand the strategic motivations. What is the United States working on? What are we thinking about? What are our political leaders focused on? As far as everyday Americans, you have seen and covered extensively [that] there is a commercial application for this, there is a political disruption purpose for this when they get to 'What are Americans thinking about?' They can control what information we are seeing on TikTok, everything from what our children to the types of things that are marketed to us, to political divisions in the United States, they have been attempting to manipulate now for quite some time," Lee concluded.
