Dave Lawler and Jonathan Swan of Axios.com provide a concise roundup of chilling cyberattack forecasts in Special report: America’s greatest threat is a hurricane-force cyberattack. Bullet points:
Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA director: “What worries me most is a cyber equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction falling into the hands of extremists who would, needless to say, be very difficult to deter, given their willingness to blow themselves up on the battlefield to take us with them.”
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta says the biggest threat is "a cyberattack that could paralyze the nation," while former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says "cyberattacks on critical infrastructure from state or state-sponsored actors are the biggest threat right now.”
“The steady drumbeat of breaches in the headlines — each more fantastic than the next — may have numbed people, but everyone should care about the cyber threat," explains Lisa Monaco, homeland security adviser to Barack Obama. "First, we are all vulnerable. Second, it won’t take a cyber 9/11 to make this very real.”
“There will be tremendous media coverage and assigning of blame after there is a catastrophic attack on U.S. critical infrastructure that results in the loss of American lives,” says Frances Townsend, homeland security adviser to George W. Bush, “but we need to spend more time now covering what is at stake and the magnitude of the growing risk.”
"Companies in the energy, financial, and other key economic sectors need to develop the capacity to share threat information in real time, and give the government the visibility and information to take action when necessary to defend us," says Matt Olsen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Frances Townsend's remark about media coverage of a catastrophic attack implies she thinks the media outlets will be spared. Interesting. Our enemies have known at least since the 1960s that the best way to defeat the U.S. is through media influence and manipulation. So she might be onto something.
In any event, it would serve the public well if those companies that rely on internet connects, and those that don't, toughen up their protections. And it goes without saying that the power grid operators should have done this already.
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10:41 AM 8/7/2018
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