WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will examine ways to impose higher costs on private actors and U.S. adversaries who carry out cyberattacks against America, his chosen national security adviser said on Sunday by Trump, Rep. Mike Waltz.

The comments follow U.S. allegations that a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon targeted and recorded phone calls of high-ranking U.S. political figures.

The White House said at least eight U.S. telecommunications and infrastructure companies were hit and a large amount of U.S. metadata was stolen as part of the sweeping cyberespionage campaign.

Waltz did not specify what the Trump administration would do in response to Typhoon Salt, but spoke more generally about the new administration’s approach. He said Washington had focused for too long primarily on strengthening its cyber defenses.

“We need to start going on the offensive and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences on private actors and state actors who continue to steal our data, who continue to spy on us,” Waltz told the CBS News show Face the. Nation.

He also said the private U.S. technology industry could also help make adversaries vulnerable and contribute to U.S. defense.

Chinese officials have previously dismissed the claims as disinformation and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cybertheft in all forms.”

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, editing by Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)