Washington, February 03: The US intelligence chief warns of serious cyber-security threats that could cripple the country’s economy.
US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair issued the warning on Tuesday while addressing the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said the recent reports of cyber-attacks on the giant American Internet search corporation Google should serve as a wake-up call.
“Malicious cyber activity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication,” Blair stated in a prepared testimony.
He claimed that sensitive information is stolen daily from both the government and the private-sector networks.
The intelligence czar said the threats, which often come from rival powers, criminal gangs and extremist groups, target US telecommunications and information systems.
Blair asserted that the aims of such attacks are intelligence collection, intellectual property theft, or simply disruption.
Google reported last month that it would not abide by Beijing-mandated “censorship” of its Chinese-language search engine and might quit the Chinese market entirely because of cyber attacks originating in China.
American firms have themselves been widely criticized for making state-sponsored efforts to intrude in the internal affairs of countries that challenge what they consider as the American global domination.
Observers argue that the official policy of the US Government is to carry out the very activities that they censure, such as stealing intellectual property through spying or using the Internet to spread falsehood and instigate instability in rival nations.
———Agencies