[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1839-1840]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             CYBER SECURITY

  Mr. KING. Mr. President, there are two items I want to touch on 
today. One is bad news and the other is good news. This week we learned 
there was a data breach of 80 million people's records--300,000 in 
Maine--at Anthem. Fortunately the data breach did not include credit 
card numbers, but it did include Social Security numbers. This news 
comes about a month after Sony.
  What is it going to take for this body, for this Congress, for this 
city, to act to protect us against these threats? We keep getting 
warning shots, and we keep ignoring them.
  I am going to have to go home this weekend, and 300,000 people in 
Maine are going to say: What have you done to keep this from happening? 
Am I

[[Page 1840]]

really going to be able to say: Well, it is complicated; we have four 
committees of jurisdiction and it is very difficult for us to make 
these decisions and it takes some time? That is not good enough.
  The intelligence committee reported out a bill last July. We had a 
bill on the floor here in the fall. It is time for us to act. We keep 
getting warned, and we keep not doing anything.
  I can't justify it. There is no excuse for us not taking steps--
concrete steps--to protect this country against cyber attacks. They 
keep happening.
  My regional representatives in Maine have surveyed both small 
businesses and health care facilities, and all of them either have been 
attacked or are concerned about attacks. Whether it is from a foreign 
country or whether it is from garden-variety criminals, the point is 
this is a major threat facing this country, and it is one we have 
within our power--we can't control it, but we can at least work 
together to try to prevent it and to minimize the damage. It is beyond 
time--way beyond time--for us to take action on this subject.
  I hope my colleagues on all the relevant committees can come together 
in the next several months--before the summer--to take action to deal 
with this problem. There is no excuse, particularly given the 
continuous warnings we are having, for not dealing with the issue of 
the cyber threat to this country.
  This week it is Anthem. A few weeks ago it was Sony. What is going to 
happen when it is the gas pipeline system, when it is the financial 
system, when it is the New York Stock Exchange, when people's bank 
accounts disappear overnight? It is time for us to act, and it is time 
for us to act promptly.

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