Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Intelligence Community Recognizes Cyber Threat

Kevin Coleman writes on Defense Tech:

In the 2008 Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community [.pdf] for the Senate Armed Services Committee for the first time the threat of cyber attacks were addressed (well, the first time in the report available to the public). The threat assessment was delivered by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Defense Intelligence Agency chief, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 27.

The intelligence community listed "the vulnerabilities of the US information infrastructure to increasing cyber attacks by foreign governments, non-state actors and criminal elements" as the fourth major bullet of the fourth page in the opening of the forty-five page testimony delivered to the Senate by DNI McConnell. The testimony goes on to state that due to the significance of computers and telecommunications to our country's security, defense and economy, threats to our IT infrastructure are an important focus of the Intelligence Community.

Also stated were the trends seen over the past year, which included cyber exploitation activities that grew more sophisticated, more targeted and more serious. Finally, McConnell stated that the Intelligence Community expects these trends to continue in the coming year.

posted by Fergie @ 2/27/2008 02:52:00 PM