Hackers are stepping up the intensity of their attacks, moving from “disruption” to “destruction” of key computer systems, the top US cyber-defense official said Monday.<\/p>\n
General Keith Alexander, who is director of the National Security Agency and commander of the US Cyber Command, told a Washington forum that the new tactics could move beyond mere annoyances and begin causing severe economic damage.<\/p>\n
“We are seeing the threat grow from exploitation to disruption to destruction,” he told the group at the Woodrow Wilson Center.<\/p>\n
He argued that these attacks could impact organizations ranging from stock markets to power grid operators — “all of that is in the realm of the possible.”<\/p>\n
These types of destructive attacks can wipe out data, which could bankrupt a company or disable the control systems operating key infrastructure.<\/p>\n
“It could overwrite the ability of a system to turn on,” Alexander said.<\/p>\n
“Think about a company that loses all the data on its system… If you wipe out the data, you wipe out the ability of the system to operate.”<\/p>\n
Alexander said the best way to protect against these types of attacks is to implement an information sharing system between the private sector and government agencies — as was proposed in cybersecurity legislation that failed this year in Congress.<\/p>\n
Such legislation could include mandatory or voluntary reporting guidelines for when attacks occur, and it could allow those reporting the incidents to be immune from liability.<\/p>\n
Senator Susan Collins, a sponsor of the failed cybersecurity bill, told the same forum the need for new laws remains high.<\/p>\n
“I hope we don’t have to wait for a ‘cyber 9\/11’ for action to happen,” she said. “These problems are not going to go away.”<\/p>\n
Both Collins and Alexander said, despite news the White House is considering an executive order, the legal framework for cybersecurity protection must come from legislation.<\/p>\n
Collins said she told President Barack Obama that an executive order would be “a big mistake” and “cannot accomplish what legislation can.”<\/p>\n
She added that an executive order “could lull people into a false sense of security.”<\/p>\n
The two spoke the same day the White House acknowledged that one of its own computer networks was hit by a cyber attack, but said no classified systems were breached and there was no indication any data was lost.<\/p>\n
An administration official spoke up after a report from a right-wing news site that Chinese hackers had breached a key White House military system.<\/p>\n
The US official said the attack was against “an unclassified network” and was a case of “spear phishing,” in which a spoofed email tricks a user into clicking through to a website where a hacker can install malicious software or gain control of another computer.<\/p>\n
“These types of attacks are not infrequent, and we have mitigation measures in place,” the official said.<\/p>\n
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