Assessing The Threat of Cyberterrorism

At an intelligence briefing last month, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair warned Congress that the nation's computer networks were particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. "Malicious cyber-activity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication," Blair said, noting that a December security breach at Google was a "major wake up call" for U.S. officials. Every single day, Blair said, sensitive information is "stolen from both government and private sector networks" as criminals become increasingly more sophisticated. The Internet's connectivity, says James Lewis, creates "endless opportunities for mischief." Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the co-author of the report "Security Cyberspace in the 44th Presidency," explains how recent breaches at Google and the Department of Defense have illustrated that the United States is not yet ready to deal with a large scale cyber-attack.