The United States at war, a cyber war, and businesses and government are simply outgunned in the battle, said Eric Rosenbach, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy.
"I read my intel brief every morning at 5:30 am and it's never a very good news story at all," Rosenbach said. "There are a lot more attacks and I hate to admit it, but I fear that there will be some type of spectacular attack against the United States or one of our allies before there are comprehensive legislation and real appreciation to take this seriously."
Just one month ago, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made headlines when he warned that the United States is in a "pre-9/11 moment" or "Pearl Harbor" referring to a potential chain of cyber attacks against the country. Rosenbach, Panetta's right-hand man, echoed that chilling warning ? to prepare for a digital 9/11. (Read More: Panetta Warns of Dire Threat of Cyberattack on U.S. )
After failing to push the Cyber Security Act of 2012 through the Senate in August , President Obama drafted Wednesday a cyber security executive order to control the Internet during emergencies. The bill permits the federal government to take control of all communications capabilities including cyber security standards of water, power and utility companies. (Read More: 10 Ways Companies Get Hacked )
"The bill is far from perfect, but it's highly preferable to no action at all," said Rosenbach, "we have to come up with standards that help us patch some of the holes in the critical systems that we need, particularly for critical infrastructure information".
The administration has wrestled with the idea of updating cyber laws as the tools and weapons in cyber space have increased in numbers and grown ever more sophisticated.
The black market for cyber weapons, which can be used to attack critical infrastructure, banks, or personal networks, are growing rapidly, Rosenbach said. (Read More: SEC Left Computers Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks: Sources )
"I think about the fact that you can go out there and purchase a specific type of cyber weapon and use that against the United States and they don't even have to be a nation anymore to develop a weapon like that - those are more like the dark web pages," Rosenbach said. "I can't give a specific name, it's classified information. But if you have the weapon and you know the vulnerabilities of the U.S. infrastructure that makes me nervous". (Read More: Cyber Attacks Up Sharply, Suppliers Targeted: Lockheed )
Over the last 6 months, massive security breaches-like the attack on Saudi Aramco , the world's largest oil company and attacks against U.S. financial service companies, including PNC (NYSE: pnc) , Wells Fargo (NYSE: wfc) , JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: jpm) and Bank of America (NYSE: bac)-have shown that government and businesses are not prepared for the mounting threat of cyber attacks. (Read More: Hackers in Iran Responsible for Cyberattacks: US )
"CEOs need to understand the mounting threat, consider the risk and plan accordingly," Rosenbach said, "You are naive if you are not factoring some aspects of cyber risk into your business plan".
email: tech@cnbc.com
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Source: http://hereisthecity.com/2012/11/19/spectacular-cyber-attack-looms-security-official/
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