Major Cyberattack Possibility 'Remote' Concede U.S. Spooks
So stop trying to panic the yokels
Privacy protection, and the debate about whether to house information-sharing programs in a civilian or military agency, dominated three congressional hearings on cybersecurity this week.
In separate hearings Tuesday in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee, leaders of the intelligence community called cyberattacks the greatest threat to the U.S. at this time—but admitted that the kinds of catastrophic attacks imagined by reporters and cyber experts were only a "remote" possibility in the near future.
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a dire warning that cyber is the nation's leading threat—but then conceded that there is only a "remote chance of a major cyberattack against US critical infrastructure systems during the next two years." Meanwhile, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA)and of the Defense Department's Cyber Command, Gen. Keith Alexander, joined Clapper in warning about the urgency of the threat in his testimony before the Armed Services Committee, but did say that none of the attacks so far constitute acts of war. Rather, they've only been corporate espionage or theft of international property, which are squarely within the criminal realm and not military defense.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?