In a presidential campaign stop on Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered his cybersecurity advice to the next president: Don’t use email.
“I would advise the next president of the United States never to send an email, because the enemies are watching us. They are monitoring the White House. We’ve had thousands of Americans’ data compromised. The Department of Defense is under constant attack,” Graham told an audience in Columbia, S.C.
In response to chuckles from the audience, Graham said, “In all seriousness, the enemies of this nation are trying to penetrate at every level.”
Graham made news this year when he revealed that he has never sent an email, a record that he has continued to uphold.
The comments, reported by South Carolina’s The State newspaper, came hours before a statement made by Secretary of State John Kerry on CBS Evening News, in which he said “it is very likely” that China and Russia are reading his emails.
“Spying has taken place for centuries and the latest means of spying is to be going after people’s cyber. Companies spend billions of dollars to protect themselves, the United States government does the same,” Kerry said.
Asked by the Examiner to comment on Kerry’s statement, Graham’s office pointed to his speech on Tuesday.
Other lawmakers have been less despondent about the future of email usage by the country’s leaders, suggesting that it is a problem if they can’t use email securely. “At best, that’s apathetic and at worst, it’s negligent,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., responding to Kerry’s comments.
