Cyber attacks grow increasingly 'reckless,' says top official
- Lily Kuo for nbcnews.com September 8th, 2012
- Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/cyber-attacks-grow-increasingly-reckless-says-top-official-985366
Other nations are increasingly employing cyber attacks without "any sense of restraint," a top U.S. cybersecurity official said on Friday, citing "reckless" behaviors that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union would have dared at the height of Cold War tensions.
Debora Plunkett, of the secretive National Security Agency, whose responsibilities include protecting U.S. government computer networks, predicted that Congress would pass long-stalled cybersecurity legislation within the next year.
Lawmakers failed this summer to overcome disputes over cybersecurity regulations for private firms such as utilities.
Plunkett, head of the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, the agency's cyber-defense arm, told a university audience that "we're starting to see nation-state resources and expertise employed in what we would characterize as reckless and disruptive, destructive behaviors."
