Dutch Ruppersberger: World needs to know not to attack U.S.

The ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee said the United States must respond to North Korea’s recent hacking of Sony Pictures over the movie “The Interview” to let the world know such moves won’t be tolerated.

“This kind of a cyberattack is called a destructive attack, an attack where you come in and you shut down systems, and it’s very, very serious and we have to deal with this,” Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, Maryland Democrat, said Monday on CNN’s “New Day.” “The public needs to understand that these cyberattacks are going to be warfare of the future and we have to do whatever we can, working with our intelligence community and our military to protect us from these attacks and work with our allies to protect them also.”

The attack, along with terrorist threats, eventually led to the cancellation of Sony’s planned Dec. 25 release of the movie, a comedy that depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr. Ruppersberger broached the notion of North Korea in the future wanting to knock out a grid system, energy system or air traffic control and said legislation to increase information-sharing to help prevent such attacks should move forward, also calling for a “measured account” in response “based on what they did to us.”

“You cannot attack the United States of America and just let it go. This is a destructive attack, the first one we’ve had from another country, and we have to be very strong and yet measure the attack and what we’re going to do,” he said. “We do have to measure this response but we have to make sure the world knows don’t attack the United States of America.”