According to Rep. Andrew Garbarino ripped into President Joe Biden Friday during an appearance on Newsmax, saying that he should have taken a stronger stance with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the topic of cyberattacks, noting that the president may not realize “that this is as big a deal as it is.”
“I’m very focused on the, uh, the cyber ransomware and the cyber attacks, the hacks that have been going on,” the New York Republican stated during his chat on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” going on to add that he doesn’t believe the United States is any safer when it comes to cybersecurity after the Biden-Putin meeting.
via Newsmax:
Biden did make it known to Putin that Russia can’t continue to allow groups in their country to launch cyberattacks on the United States, but it’s a concern that he gave Putin of 16 entities that should not be targeted, Garbarino said.
“We don’t want any attacks,” he went on to tell Newsmax. “I don’t want my school districts being hacked from Russia … it shouldn’t he shouldn’t just be limited to 16. He should say, ‘you allow people from inside your country to come after us attack us through ransomware through hacks. You know you’re going to have to pay the price.'”
Further, he said, “nothing happens in Russia without Putin or his people knowing about it,” so for the Russian leader to claim that a “rogue group” inside the country launched the attacks, Biden should be telling Russia not to launch attacks at all.
Americans are also feeling the pinch of cyberattacks after the Colonial pipeline was hit, and Garbarino said it is “scary” that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently was quoted saying he “doesn’t recall” a specific definition for cyberattacks.
He said that the committee has dealt with the same issues with the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, and noted that Biden’s proposed budget is “grossly underfunded” when it comes to cyber protection.
“America wants to feel protected,” he stated. “They want to feel safe, especially with cyber, so the president (and) administration should be putting a lot more money behind cyber protection, behind the Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency … it’s obvious that this administration does not feel that cybersecurity, cyber protection is high on their list.”
Garbarino is right on the money. Biden isn’t tough enough on cybersecurity and the likely reason is he’s too old to get a grasp on the issue mentally speaking. Regardless, the Colonial Pipeline incident should have demonstrated clearly how important it is to protect our nation from cyberattacks.
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