Experts warn of danger of cyber attacks

The nation's two top experts on foreign intelligence Wednesday warned that the United States is vulnerable to cyber attacks from terrorists and enemy nations engaging in computer age "information warfare."

During an appearance before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, CIA Director George Tenet and Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minihan, director of the National Security Agency, conceded random hackers pose a more immediate problem than organized enemies, but stressed that well-financed, well-planned attacks from enemies might not be far off.

Citing burgeoning technology across the globe, Minihan said its growth opens "a window of opportunity for an electronic Pearl Harbor." Tenet said the situation presents "a very serious threat to our national security."

Declared Tenet, "Information technology has the potential to deal a crippling blow to our national security." The threat "is not on the front burner, but it's urgent," he added.

"Potential attackers range from national intelligence and military organizations, terrorists, criminals, industrial competitors, hackers, and disgruntled, disloyal insiders," Tenet said.

Among their targets could be the U.S. banking and commercial systems, domestic public safety systems and military systems.

A recent Defense Department study found its own information systems were attacked a quarter of a million times in 1995, Tenet said. That year the department conduced 38,000 cyber assaults of its own. They were successful 65 percent of the time, and 63 percent of the attacks went undetected.

Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., noted that other experts had made the same points, but that Tenet and Minihan were the highest ranking U.S. officials to go on record.

"Protecting our nation against cyber attack represents one of the greatest challenges we've had as a country," Thompson said.

Without naming them, Tenet said several nations are working on developing information war capability. Information warfare has been developed in foreign nations' military doctrine and war college curricula, Tenet said.

To meet the challenge, Tenet urged cooperation between government and the computer industry. The top priority, he said, is to develop a system to authenticate where information has come from, who sent it, and whether a transaction has taken place by the parties properly involved in it.