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

WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump's administration will examine ways to impose higher costs on private actors and US adversaries who wage cyber attacks on America, Trump's pick for national security adviser, Representative Mike Waltz, said on Sunday (Dec 15).

The comments come after US 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 defences.

"We need to start going on the offence 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 US technology industry could also be helpful in making adversaries vulnerable as well as aiding in US defence.

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."

[[nid:712102]]