Trump Looks to Go ‘On the Offense’ Against Cyberattackers

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly looking for ways to get tougher on cyberattackers.

That’s according to U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Trump’s choice to serve as national security adviser. Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday (Dec. 15), Waltz said the government needed to stop focusing so much on shoring up its cyberdefense measures.

“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 said.

He added that the American tech industry could also play a role in helping improve U.S. cyberdefenses against hackers that “are literally putting cyber time bombs on our infrastructure, our water systems, our grids, even our ports.”

The Florida Republican’s comments follow a series of high-profile cyberattacks this year, including allegations of a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that targeted and recorded telephone calls of senior American political figures.

The government has alleged that at least eight telecommunications and infrastructure firms in the United States had been impacted, with a vast amount of metadata being stolen. The Chinese government has denied the U.S.’s allegations, saying it “firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cybertheft in all forms.”

In related news, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently announced it had sanctioned a China-based cybersecurity company and one of its employees, saying they played a part in an April 2020 compromise of about 81,000 firewalls at thousands of businesses worldwide.

The attacks targeted more than 23,000 firewalls in the United States, 36 of which were guarding the systems of critical infrastructure companies, per an OFAC news release.

“Today’s action underscores our commitment to exposing these malicious cyber activities — many of which pose significant risk to our communities and our citizens — and to holding the actors behind them accountable for their schemes,” said Bradley T. Smith, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Meanwhile, a hacking group called Termite has carried out several recent attacks, including ones against supply chain management software provider Blue Yonder, whose customers include Starbucks and U.K. grocery chain Morrisons.

“The surge in cyberattacks targeting enterprise operations highlights a shift in how hackers approach their targets,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “Rather than casting wide nets through ransomware campaigns, cybercriminal groups are focusing on critical infrastructure that serves as the backbone of corporate data exchange.”