Rep. Pat Fallon proposes cyberattack legislation after recent hacks

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Rep. Pat Fallon: Paying off hackers incentivizes more

Texas Republican says, 'we need to have consequences not only for the hackers, but for the Russian government as well, if indeed they are in cahoots with them'

Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, joined "Your World" Wednesday stressing the importance of cracking down on hackers citing national, economic and health security risks are at stake.

REP. PAT FALLON: And this is just so critically important, and unfortunately, when we pay off these cyber terrorists, we're going to get more of them. And you know, according to the FBI, with the Colonial Pipeline attack, it was based in Russia. And I think personally, Putin's looking the other way. And he's acting like much like Queen Elizabeth did 500 years ago with the privateers raiding Spanish Armada, they were raiding Spanish gold ships. Is this something he's harboring them? And we need to have consequences not only for the hackers, but for the Russian government as well, if indeed they are in cahoots with them. 

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We're talking about national security, our economic security, our health security. This is the leadership to come from the White House or a single member of Congress. And I filed H.R.3388 [to increase penalties for certain computer fraud and related offenses that involve critical infrastructure, and for other purposes] specifically because we saw the threat that this presented two weeks ago and nothing's been done. This should be a bipartisan effort to pass this legislation forthwith. 

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