WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) pressed high-ranking officials within the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense to develop a more comprehensive national cyber-security policy.

Senator King specifically pressed Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work, and Admiral Michael S. Rogers, the head of U.S. Cyber Command and Director at the National Security Agency, to develop a definition of what would constitute an act of war in the cyber realm and to do so quickly.

“We need to define what an act of war is in the cyber area… I don’t mean to imply that this is easy, but it’s urgent,” Senator King said.

Senator King also urged the officials to develop a strategy to deter other countries from launching cyber-attacks against the United States:

“If there’s a catastrophic attack tonight on the financial infrastructure of this country, I do not want to go on cable news in the morning – if there is cable news in the morning – and say the administration told us that ‘the policy is still in development.’ We’ve got to get on this. […] The idea that we can continue to simply defend and never have an offensive capability is ignoring this enormous threat [on] which we all agree,” Senator King said. “The second part of that is that it can’t be secret. Our instinct is to make everything secret, and the whole point of a deterrent capability is that it not be secret. I think we need to establish what we have – I suspect we do have some significant offensive capability – but part of making it a deterrent is that it has to be made public.”

Senator King asked each of the witnesses if they agreed with him that the Unites States needs to develop a strategy to deter other countries from launching cyber-attacks against us, and all three agreed.  In his other questions, Senator King asked Admiral Rogers about the complex web of agencies and departments with cyber authority, and whether that network needs to be simplified.

Senator King, who is also a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, last Thursday questioned Admiral Rogers about U.S. offensive cyber capabilities and the possibility of an international cyber nonproliferation treaty. Following the U.S.-China cyber agreement announced by the White House last Friday, Senator King released a statement calling the development a positive step forward on what has been a complicated and, at times, combative issue for the two countries.

Senator King’s questions today in the Armed Services hearing can be viewed HERE.

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