Is All The Talk About Cyberwarfare Just Hype?

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the danger of a devastating cyberattack is the No. 1 threat facing the U.S. He made the assessment Tuesday on Capitol Hill before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats.
Susan Walsh/AP Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the danger of a devastating cyberattack is the No. 1 threat facing the U.S. He made the assessment Tuesday on Capitol Hill before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats.Susan Walsh/AP
U.S. government pronouncements about the danger of a major cyberattack can be confusing. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, and the head of the U.S. military's Cyber Command, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, delivered mixed messages this week while testifying on Capitol Hill.
Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the prospect of a computer attack on the nation's critical infrastructure is now the top security threat facing the country, surpassing terrorism.
"It's hard to overestimate its significance," Clapper said.
In a separate appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Alexander issued a similar warning.
"All our systems today — our power systems, our water systems, our governments, our industry — depend on computers, depend on computerized switches, depend on these networks," Alexander said. "All are at risk. If an adversary were to get in, they could essentially destroy those components."
Asked by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham whether such an intrusion would cause as much or more damage than the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Alexander answered, "That's correct. I think it would."
The Clapper and Alexander testimonies, however, were worded carefully. Clapper, in an assessment representing the views of the entire U.S. intelligence community, characterized the chance of a major cyberattack against U.S. infrastructure in the next two years as "remote."
"The level of technical expertise and operational sophistication required for such an attack will be out of reach for most actors during this time frame," the assessment stated. "Advanced cyber actors — such as Russia and China — are unlikely to launch such a devastating attack against the United States outside of a military conflict or crisis that they believe threatens their vital interests."
Alexander was similarly reassuring in his written testimony.

Dueling Claims In Syria After Unconfirmed Reports About Chemical Weapons

While state-controlled media in Syria are claiming that opposition forces are responsible for what may have been a chemical weapon attack Tuesday in the city of Aleppo, rebel spokesman Qassim Saadeddine is telling Reuters that the opposition was "not behind this attack."

As often happens when news such as this breaks, it's not possible at this point to confirm just what — if anything — has happened. Syrian state media are claiming that at least 15 people were killed in Aleppo by some sort of rocket. The watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is telling Reuters that as many as 26 people were killed.

American officials have said that President Bashar Assad's regime has prepared chemical weapons for use, and President Obama has warned the Syrian leader that "if you [Assad] make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

We'll watch for developments.

Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. No Evidence The Weapons Have Been Used, White House Says:

The Associated Press reports that "the Obama administration has no evidence to back up a claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons, the White House said Tuesday. A U.S. official went further and said there was no evidence either side had used such weapons Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, disputing a competing claim by rebels that it was regime forces who fired the chemical weapon."