House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is slamming President Obama for calling North Korea’s hack of Sony vandalism and warning the U.S. to take the threat more seriously.
Royce said the hack should be treated as “cyber terrorism” in an interview on “The Cats Roundtable,” host John Catsimatidis’s Sunday radio show on New York AM 970.
{mosads}”We should respond to it,” he added. “Calling it vandalism is a joke.”
The chairman said that the current hacking threat was a “code war” akin to a digital Cold War.
The Obama administration has accused North Korea of being behind a massive hack of Sony Pictures. The hackers also threatened physical attacks on theaters showing the studio’s new comedy “The Interview,” about a fictional assassination plot on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The threats forced Sony to initially cancel their planned release of the movie.
Obama in an interview last week said that the hack was not an act of war by North Korea.
“I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley.”
Obama also vowed that the U.S. would respond appropriately.
In recent days, North Korea’s Internet access has been shutdown. The Obama administration has refused to say if it played any role.
Royce on Sunday warned of more hacks to come. He said North Korean hackers had gone after South Korea’s banking system and nuclear industry.
The chairman has also called for tougher economic sanctions against Pyongyang. A sanctions bill he introduced passed the House in July.