Intelligence official says cyberwarnings ‘blinking red’
WASHINGTON — Warning lights about cyberthreats to U.S. national security are “blinking red” and the digital attempts to undermine America are occurring daily, not just at election time, the nation’s top intelligence official said Friday.
Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor, but cyberthreats also are coming from China, Iran and North Korea as well as criminal networks and individual hackers, said National Intelligence Director Dan Coats.
Targets include U.S. businesses, the federal government, the military, state and local governments, academic and financial institutions and critical infrastructure, he said.
Coats spoke at Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.
“The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, in coordination with international partners, have detected Russian government actors targeting government and businesses in the energy, nuclear, water, aviation and critical manufacturing sectors,” Coats said.
He compared the cyberthreat today with how U.S. officials said before 9/11 that intelligence channels were “blinking red” with warning signs that a terror attack was imminent.
“Here we are nearly two decades later and I’m here to say the warning lights are blinking red again,” Coats said.
He emphasized that focusing on possible election-related attacks, including during the November midterms, misses an important point. He warned of the potential for a crippling cyberattack against critical U.S. infrastructure — a power outage in New England in January or a cyberattack on banks that wipes out people’s life savings. “These actions are persistent. They’re pervasive and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy on a daily basis, regardless of whether it is election time or not,” Coats said.