Nation states seen as biggest cybersecurity threat

A prominent cybersecurity expert and the Estonian ambassador to the United States cautioned government insiders to be mindful of the significant threat that coordinated attacks by nation states can pose to a country's digital infrastructure.

Speaking at a breakfast hosted by Government Executive and the European Affairs journal, Dmitri Alperovitch, president of Asymmetric Cyber Operations LLC, outlined the categories of Internet adversaries, placing nation states ahead of terrorist groups, hacktivist collectives and organized crime as the biggest threat to national security on the digital front. "I don't believe we have a cyber problem today," Alperovitch said. "I believe we have a China problem today, I believe we have a Russia problem today." The true danger of nationally coordinated cyberattacks, he said, is that they are easy to deny, making a police or military response impossible.