(Radio Iowa) – A Republican state senator from Sioux City who’s running for the U-S Senate says if there’s a cyberattack against the nation’s energy supply, the U-S Department of Justice and F-B-I should take over immediately. Jim Carlin says letting a private company negotiate and pay a ransom puts the company’s profits ahead of national security. Carlin’s comments come after the C-E-O of an east coast pipeline revealed the company paid hackers five MILLION dollars after a ransomware attack shut the pipeline down.

Carlin campaigned in Carroll, Crawford, Shelby, Cass and Audubon Counties earlier this week.