“I’ve retained a firm that’s going to give us advice…an internet security firm that’s going to give us advice on what the next steps to take. I don’t believe this is a capitol offense. I don’t believe this is a federal case. I believe this is a case of someone sending a nuisance twitter making fun of my name,” Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday.
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Mr. Weiner mistakenly believed Congressman Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican, thought of the Tweet as a light hearted prank as well telling me later in the day, “One of the things we’re trying to get to the bottom of is what the appropriate venue was, but I’m not…I’m treating this as a prank and I think so is Mr. Stearns.” (AUDIO)
However, Congressman Stearns told the Washington Times earlier on Wednesday that support is mixed as to whether or not the incident dealing with Congressman Weiner was just something that was incidental. “In a larger sense, I think it’s something more significant than that and we must not be taking it lightly,” said Mr. Stearns.
Rep. Stearns later added, “I think one of the questions we have to ask is did it occur on his Blackberry and when did it occur? And I think the House itself, the Sergeant at arms should do some kind of investigation to find out how it happened, because if it could happen on his Blackberry, it could happen on my Blackberry as well as my I-Phone.”
The Florida Congressman previously explained the importance of cyber-security and why the three branches of government need protection from hackers:
“The problem is if you have a member of Congress… his blackberry broken into…that represents a very serious violation of our security here in Congress. This could be done in the executive branch. It could be done in the Department of Defense. So the long term security of his national defense of our country is dependent upon our privacy by people who are running this country and we do not want to see hackers getting in. So in a larger sense, we need to understand that cyber-security is a huge threat to us as much as any other type of weapons that could be deployed against us because cyber-security reveals lots of secrets that members of Congress and the Executive branch do not want to make known and in a larger sense our national security is at stake.”
