King: ‘There has to be trust’ between government, companies following cyberattacks

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said on Sunday that there should be a “new relationship” between private sectors and the federal government after recent cybersecurity attacks on energy and food sectors.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of The Union” King told host Jake Tapper that trust should be established between private sectors and the government, citing that when the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack happened in May, the company didn’t notify the government.

“We need essentially an entirely new relationship between the private sector and the federal government,” King told Tapper.  “And I realized the term relationship between private sector and federal government is kind of an oxymoron. But that’s what we have to establish. There has to be trust.”

King added that the federal government also had the “resources and assets” to help in these types of situations. 

“As we’ve had these series of cyberattacks from North Korea, from Russia, from China, we really haven’t responded. … You can’t defend yourself simply by bobbing and weaving and patching,” King told Tapper.  

“The adversary has to understand they will pay a price, there will be a cost for attacking the United States or for attacking our critical infrastructure, and thus far, they really haven’t felt that.”