Ex US internal-security overlord bigs up cyber menace

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/05/cyber_crime_the_cutting_edge_of_future_threats/

By Brid-Aine Parnell
The Register
5th September 2011

Cyberattacks are the top threat to future national security, according 
to the former head of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 
Michael Chertoff.

It's well known that Chertoff, who is now the co-founder and managing 
principal of private security consultancy the Chertoff Group, has a 
healthy respect for the power of technology. Investments by the DHS 
during his tenure there included SBInet (known here at The Reg as the 
Eye-o-Sauron stare-towers); handheld lobster spy-beam scanners; and 
Project Hostile Intent, a non-invasive mind probe to separate the 
dastardly from the law-abiding.

However, Chertoff now worries that power will be used more and more 
often to attack financial and political systems, as we've already seen 
happen in Estonia and Georgia.

In April 2007, websites of the Estonian parliament, banks, ministries 
and the media were the victims of a number of cyberattacks while the 
country rowed with Russia over Soviet-era war memorials in its capital 
Tallinn. The following year, websites in Georgia were attacked before 
and during the military action with Russia. Russia denied being behind 
either attack and experts were unable to come up with the culprits, 
highlighting the difficulty of tracing many cybercrimes.

"Cybercrime is probably the cutting edge of where we're going to be 
looking at threats in the future," Chertoff said at a lecture at the 
London School of Economics this morning, adding that improvements in the 
internet "unquestionably create greater risks".

[...]


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