Angus King

I just think we need to be talking to the American people about the fundamental responsibility of any government, which is to keep its people safe.

The only thing more expensive than deterrence is fighting a war, and the only thing more expensive than fighting a war is losing a war.

We also need to get back to old-fashioned human intelligence.

I think innovation is going to be an absolute key to this.

There are places our power doesn't reach. We can't regulate something that's over in Berlin or Swaziland.

The idea of somehow being able to control encryption is just not realistic.

Because you can't hack a sextant.

It seems to me the good news is that we're the most wired society on Earth.

I would appreciate, to the extent you guys can give us suggested language or proposals or outlines of legislation, that is what we are looking for.

I just think it is important. That shows the complexity of this issue. You have to really do it in a granular way.

I just want to again sort of clarify. You can tap phones now, right, Apple iPhones, if you get subpoenas, Mr. Vance?

I think that is a very important point, because a lot of the publicity and discussion and testimony at the time of the original San Bernardino case was we only want this for one phone. We are not talking about one phone. We are talking…

One of the things, frankly, that really bothered me about the Apple case was that we had all this excitement and publicity about a great American company that went on for months and months, and then the FBI said never mind, we figured out…

I think we need more information, frankly. I commend the chair for setting up this hearing, but I think this really needs some deep thought by a lot of people because it is really, in many ways, new territory.

I do not like commissions, but I signed on to Senator Warner's bill to set up a commission to really look in depth at this issue involving the technology community, the law enforcement community, and the intelligence community.

I agree with that. This is a very difficult issue to grapple with, because basically we are balancing two provisions of the Constitution, provide for the common defense and ensure domestic tranquility, and the First, Fourth, and Fifth…

I think one of the problems we have to think anew here is, is that this is an international phenomenon.

Encryption, the encryption horse is way out of the barn. We are not talking about encryption.

I think it is important to clarify, because there is a lot of confusion in this discussion, even in this hearing.

I hope this legislation will be helpful to you in focusing on this particular aspect.

Well as I understand the history of the Ukraine hack, one of the first things they did was change all the passwords so the operators couldn't get back into their own systems, and then they put malware in.

I do not want to go home to Maine after a disastrous attack somewhere in the United States on our critical infrastructure and explain that we did not try some various options.

As Senator Manchin mentioned, we are asymmetrically wired, so we are asymmetrically vulnerable.

Speaking for myself, not the other co-sponsors but speaking for myself, I truly believe that the next significant event, and when I talk about a significant event, I mean a really significant event, will not be a kinetic event, but will…

The best description of Russian foreign policy I ever heard was that they were like a hotel thief who goes down the hall, trying every door until they find one that's open, and then they go in.