Jun 27, 2010 11:15am
CIA: Cyber Warfare Could ‘Paralyze’ U.S.
EmailIn an EXCLUSIVE interview on “This Week,” host Jake Tapper asked CIA Director Leon Panetta what threat the U.S. is not paying enough attention to.
One of his answers: cyber warfare.
“We are now in a world in which cyber warfare is very real. It could threaten our grid system. It could threaten our financial system,” Panetta said.
“It could paralyze this country, and I think that's an area we have to pay a lot more attention to,” the CIA chief said.
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Technology most of it paid for by the US people allowed to leave our shores to line the pockets of the free trade republican neocons. How secure does it make everyone feel now? Now we have to spend billions to fight hackers. The neocons got theirs though. Every republican needs to be thrown out of office.
Posted by: rightbehind | June 27, 2010, 11:40 am 11:40 am
Outsourced to other countries. H1B foreign workers displacing and depressing wages of American workers, on American soil. The American IT technological lead has been lost. No college graduate in their right mind, would want to compete with labor from the third world countries. Corporate America is reaping what it has sown. Cyber warfare? I won’t surprised that a scandal will erupt soon that all the Indian outsources such as Wipro and TCS are riddled with foreign and corporate spies.
Posted by: boredtired | June 27, 2010, 11:45 am 11:45 am
The whole ‘cyber warfare’ hoax is just overblown nationalist hackers. Almost all of the internet espionage is done by corporations against each other, and the few attacks on governments are done by lone or small group hackers with no connection to any government, except maybe sympathy. Most of what is classified as ‘attacks’ is actually thefts.
Posted by: Flash Override | June 27, 2010, 12:48 pm 12:48 pm
@rightbehind – it isn’t only the right that has sold out American citizens to free trade, the left has done much of the same. Both Bill and Hillary Clinton were instrumental in selling out our tech workforce to India. And if I’m not mistaken, they’ve personally profited from investments they’ve made in Indian tech companies (e.g., Wipro, Infosys) who’s business model relies on supplying cheap foreign labor.
Posted by: Vincenzo | June 27, 2010, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
Which countries are the threats in cyber warfare? China? Iran? Does backward North Korea have that capability? Are there “super” firewalls that could prevent cyber attacks?
Posted by: stuart davis | June 27, 2010, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
Hezbollah is in cahoots with the Mexican drug cartels and we’re supposed to focus our resources and efforts on the interwebz?
Brilliant.
Posted by: The Northern Star | June 27, 2010, 3:18 pm 3:18 pm
Cyber attack potential to the electric-power and financial grids. President Obama’s mongolian charlie foxtrot war in Afghanistan of Presidential Candidate Obama’s 2008 necessity. Bush’s continuing spring-loaded disaster in Iraq. An oil spill where Obama laid back at the beginning to let the henhouse BP foxes take charge of repair and remediation. Geithner banging Obama’s drum to G20 countries to take on even more federal/national debt. Against this backdrop the Obama administration will focus it’s time, effort, and resources into suing Arizona over concurrent enforcement of federal immigration law. If the weasels are going to finally do it, it would be in keeping with Obama’s in-your-face-America style to do so going into the July 4th Independence Day holiday, to try and redefine it as Cuatro de Julio Dia de Reconquista.
Posted by: dom youngross | June 27, 2010, 4:59 pm 4:59 pm
why does the government keep pushing computers, “green” technology, the internet, “smart” grids, HD TV etc? Maybe so that later they can use that the “connectedness” they promoted (and in many cases forced) means that we must give up civil rights and we need Czars or secret government agencies to control, monitor, and “secure” every aspect of our life!
Posted by: Ed | June 27, 2010, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
Baiting flash override???? LOL
Posted by: Parallex View | June 27, 2010, 8:30 pm 8:30 pm
You people have no idea about these Indian companies you are talking about. TCS, Infosys, Wipro etc are very very reputed companies in India and have a very good business model. Though all of them run BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) its not their main business, but just another venture.
Posted by: Asdf | June 28, 2010, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
The threat is very real and it’s nice to see government leaders identifying and acknowledging the threats we face as a nation. That being said, we have significant work ahead to protect our government, financial, power and other critical infrastructures from cyber attacks.
Posted by: Mike | June 28, 2010, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
Of course Obama would push to quiet the internet. It’s the only place where there is even a chance of communicating the truth about his abysmal performance.
Posted by: jai | June 28, 2010, 6:25 pm 6:25 pm
Sounds like a perfect way to install InternetII (I2). The Bigger Brother version…
Posted by: Anna | June 28, 2010, 7:09 pm 7:09 pm
Nearly everybody posting here has at least one very valid statement. But the digitization of all aspects of life is being pushed by those who would control every aspect of life. If any one knows Russian history, then the last thing you want is any kind of Czar in our government! With our industrial machine scattered across the globe in potentially hostile countries, the US will not survive another conflict on the scale of WWI and WWII. Globalization is part of Agenda 21 which pushes “sustainable development”. All these things have been accelerating since 1994. Unfortunately large corporations and the DC politicians they purchase are profitting big time from all this so its not going to stop. All these “global” policies are detrimental to the welfare and interests of the American citizen. Government of the people in spite of the people. It is foolish to place control of the grid, utilities, buildings, airspace or any other critical infrastructure on the internet. The best security is NOT to connect it to the net. But doing so allows reduction in personnel and the lazy remote management of resources. This results in even more profit…unfortunately also it increases unemployment. Republican, Democrat, Independent no longer matters. They are all lobbied to push socialistic policies not in the ultimate best interest of we the people. Yes, cyber warfare could debilitate the nation, but I am more afraid of the end result of our own government’s catering to multinational corporations and the globalist agenda. None of this matters as Americans are reduced to a third world quality of life.
Posted by: GrayJedi | June 29, 2010, 9:40 am 9:40 am
Zonealarm (or a decent firewall) on every computer, like lights on a vehicle, should be a law. You are alert when in your vehicle, why not have a good program to keep you alert online!
Posted by: richardishere | June 29, 2010, 11:29 am 11:29 am
If you REALLY wanted to devastate the US through the Internet you would need to have the Internet be completely centralized and controlled by some common set of people and driven by a common infrastructure and secured by a big centralized system. That’s not what we have now, but that’s what these totalitarians are calling for.
Of course their motivations have nothing to do with our security or privacy. They just want all the keys and all the control over everything and they will use any excuse to get their hands on all of the control over the Internet there is.
This isn’t for our security, it’s for Big Brother’s security.
Posted by: mrsubtle | June 29, 2010, 4:52 pm 4:52 pm
seems to me like most of the attacks are coming FROM the u.s.
Posted by: FIKE2308 | January 4, 2011, 11:41 pm 11:41 pm