Mission: We must ensure our national security agencies and diplomatic corps are equipped to meet 21st century challenges, including cybersecurity and terrorism. The U.S. must maintain its strong bilateral and multilateral alliances, including through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The threats to our national security are complex and we cannot go it alone. Congress must act now to defend against the threat of hacking into our democratic institutions from state and non-state actors.
- With the Iraqi military’s victory against ISIS, we should continue to support rebuilding the state. We should pursue a clear exit plan for Afghanistan, with a defined and final timeline for our military personnel to depart.
- The U.S. should create a path of international internet governance as the means to address nation-state cyber-insecurity and to reduce organized and other forms of fraud and crime on the internet. Nationally, we must secure our internet borders to protect U.S. economic, political and cultural interests. In an interconnected world, national physical security relies on safe and trusted use of the internet.
- The U.S. should negotiate with North Korea to reduce tensions and lower the probability of military engagement.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2025
STATEMENT FROM DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE TRACY MITRANO ON RUSSIAN HACKERS TARGETING U.S. SENATE
Trend Micro, a cyber security firm, announced today that Russian government-aligned hackers who targeted the U.S. presidential election in 2016 are working to hack into the U.S. Senate, according to a report from the Associated Press. A security researcher at Trend Micro said, “They’re still very active—in making preparations at least—to influence public opinion again. They are looking for information they might like later.”
Cyber security expert and Democratic candidate Tracy Mitrano running for Congress against Tom Reed in NY-23 released the following statement on the issue:
“This week marks one year since the U.S. Intelligence Community publicly released their assessment that the Russian government paid hackers to influence our elections as part of a larger covert effort to undermine our democratic processes.
Despite this, neither Congress nor the White House have put a single law or measure into place to protect our country against this ongoing threat. In fact, the majority of Republicans in Congress still deny the threat, including Congressman Tom Reed who has repeatedly downplayed the Russian attack against us as just something the U.S. does to other countries.
As a result, several credible reports, including the one today from Trend Micro, indicate hackers are doing exactly what one would expect an adversary to do when left unchecked—they have continued to target and attack us.
The U.S. must take the cyber threat seriously, just as we would any other part of our national security and defense planning. We risk the very security of our country—our people, our economy, and our infrastructure—by ignoring the cyber threat. I cannot imagine anything less patriotic than efforts on the part of some in the federal government to minimize the impact of this threat. The longer we ignore it, the weaker we become as a country.”
