Intel Boss McConnell Says U.S. Would Lose Cyberwar

Ben Bain
GCN
March 1, 2010

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

If the United States fought a war in cyberspace today it would lose, the nation’s former top intelligence official has told a Senate Committee.

“We’re the most vulnerable, we’re the most connected, we have the most to lose, so if we went to war today in a cyber war we would lose,” Michael McConnell, who previously served as the director of national intelligence, told the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Feb. 23.

McConnell told the panel that although the United States has made progress on cybersecurity, the country hasn’t made a national commitment to understanding and securing cyberspace. He predicted a catastrophic event would be needed to move the country toward a pre-emptive posture to mitigate the threat.

“We’re not going to do what we need to do; we’re going to have a catastrophic event [and] the government’s role is going to change dramatically, and then we’re going to go to a new infrastructure,” McConnell, a retired Navy vice admiral, predicted.

McConnell added that he was particularly worried about non-state actors that want to destroy the U.S. information infrastructure, such as the global financial system.

Read entire article

  Print this page.

Comment Rules

Comments are closed.