Condemning the cyber attacks on American persons and organizations conducting research related to COVID-19 and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that those responsible for perpetrating such belligerent acts should face consequences.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 1031 Condemning the cyber attacks on American persons and organizations con- ducting research related to COVID-19 and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that those responsible for perpetrating such belligerent acts should face consequences. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 30, 2020 Mr. KINZINGER submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Condemning the cyber attacks on American persons and organizations conducting research related to COVID-19 and expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that those responsible for perpetrating such belligerent acts should face consequences. Whereas the novel COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis that has killed over 128,000 American citizens; Whereas American research institutions in both the public and private sectors have been the target of attempted cyber network attacks while working diligently to develop treatments and a cure for this disease; VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:59 Jul 13, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1031.IH HR1031 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 1031 IH Whereas health care, pharmaceutical, and research sectors working on COVID-19 response are the prime targets of these attacks; Whereas, on May 13, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investiga- tion (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Se- curity Agency (CISA) issued a public announcement to raise awareness of the cyber threat to COVID-19-related research and that any potential theft of such research would jeopardize the delivery of secure, effective, and effi- cient treatment options for American citizens; Whereas the FBI and CISA attributed the attacks on these American organizations to the People’s Republic of China (PRC); Whereas the PRC has a long history of conducting cyber-at- tacks on Americans and the United States Government, including the 2015 hack of the Office of Personnel Man- agement, which resulted in the theft of private informa- tion belonging to millions of American citizens: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That— 1 (1) the House of Representatives condemns in 2 the harshest of terms the cyber-attacks perpetrated 3 against those American persons and organizations 4 engaged in COVID-19 research; and 5 (2) it is the sense of the House of Representa- 6 tives that the Administration should respond to 7 these attacks to punish those responsible and to dis- 8 suade others from engaging in the same acts by uti- 9 lizing existing authorities, including the implementa- 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Jul 01, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR1031.IH HR1031 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 1031 IH tion of sanctions against those foreign persons en- 1 gaged in such acts at the behest of the PRC. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Jul 01, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR1031.IH HR1031 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS