President Joe Biden should have taken a tougher stance with Russian President Vladimir Putin when it comes to cyberattacks, but he may not realize "that this is as big a deal as it is," Rep. Andrew Garbarino said Friday on Newsmax.
"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 said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," adding that he does not think the United States is any safer after the Biden-Putin summit.
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 said. "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 said. "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."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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