WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) pressed the Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, to hasten the development of a cyber-deterrence strategy to help prevent adversaries from launching cyber-attacks against the United States.

“When are we going to have a well-developed and articulated cyber-deterrence strategy?” Senator King asked. “We need definition of what is an act of war, what is a proportional response, what is a mutually-assured destruction situation. It just seems to me as a matter of policy that this needs to happen. We’ve been talking about this as long as I’ve been on this Committee. I would urge you and the counsels of the Administration to push for a sense of urgency on this question because if there’s no deterrence ultimately we’re going to lose this battle.”

As a member of both the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, Senator King has repeatedly called for a comprehensive, public cyber-security strategy that includes deterrent measures in order to discourage foreign governments or other entities from launching cyber-attacks against the United States. Admiral Rogers confirmed to Senator King that he was part of such discussions, but was not able to provide a timeline on when such a strategy could be formulated or announced. He did agree with Senator King’s assessment on the need for a strategy, though, saying that not having one would constitute “a losing strategy.” Several other members of the Committee, including Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), also pointed to Senator King’s comments in follow-up questions of their own.

Senator King’s question to Admiral Rogers on cyber-deterrence also followed comments highlighting the impacts of cyber-attacks in Maine. Senator King called for increased communication between federal intelligence agencies and local law enforcement.

“In Maine, we had three urgent care centers that were hacked. We had Maine General Health – which is one of our major healthcare [providers] – they were hacked,” said Senator King. “I understand you don’t call out the Army if there’s a criminal in one town – you have local police – but there’s a gap here in our defenses because we really don’t have the [cyber] infrastructure. You have the expertise, and we have to work out something between Cyber Command and local law enforcement to protect us from these repeated and escalating attacks.”

Over the past few years, Senator King’s office has been in frequent contact with a variety of Maine businesses in the health, defense, financial, education, and consumer products sectors to understand how cyber-attacks and data breaches impact them. In response to several data breaches and ongoing cyber-threats faced by Maine businesses, Senator King co-hosted a cyber-security briefing last August with the Department of Homeland Security and Maine State Chamber of Commerce in Portland to inform local businesses about best practices to protect them from cyber-attacks.

In February, Senator King also convened two security roundtables with local law enforcement from across Maine, where officials stressed the need for improved communication across all levels of law enforcement.

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