PORTLAND, ME – Following the news of a cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released the following statement:

“This cyber intrusion is yet another example of the serious threats our country faces,” Senator King said. “Cyber hackers and criminals will only continue to probe our systems for weaknesses – and we know full well the next target could be our electric grid, our financial systems, or another vital part of our national infrastructure. How many breaches do we have to endure, how many Americans have to be put at risk, before Congress takes action on this incredibly pressing and serious issue? I continue to strongly urge my colleagues to immediately consider cyber-security legislation. The American people deserve better.”

Senator King has been a strong and vocal advocate of passing cyber-security legislation. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he supported the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), which passed the Committee with bipartisan support last July, but did not receive a vote on the Senate floor.

In remarks delivered on the Senate floor earlier this year, he further warned about the danger of cyber-attacks and called on Congress to immediately pass meaningful cyber-security legislation. Senator King’s remarks can be watched HERE.

Senator King’s office has spoken with a variety of Maine businesses within the health, defense, financial, education, and consumer products sectors, almost all of which expressed serious concern about cyber-security or had even experienced some type of cyber-intrusion. For example, according to the Maine Credit Union League, over the past year data breaches in Maine have cost credit unions around $2 million to replace debit and credit cards and an additional $500,000 for covering fraud.

A study conducted by McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that the annual cost to the global economy from cyber-crime is more than $445 billion, and that economic losses from cyber-crime could translate into more than 200,000 jobs lost in the U.S. alone.

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