Cyber Command chief details threats to U.S.

[Brian Warkoczeski]

Cyber Command chief details threats to U.S.

by Lance Whitney, CNET

August 5, 2010

If the United States wants to defend itself against cyberattacks, it 
needs to focus on four key areas, according to United States Cyber 
Command head and NSA Director Army Gen. Keith Alexander.

Speaking Tuesday on the first day of the Armed Forces Communications and 
Electronics Association's LandWarNet conference in Tampa, Fla., 
Alexander discussed the dangers to the country's military networks and 
what the U.S. must do to safeguard them.

The general said the threat of cyberattack affects more than 7 million 
different computers on more than 1,500 individual networks maintained by 
the Defense Department.

"On any given day, our networks are probed over 250,000 times an hour," 
said Alexander. That figure adds up to 6 million per day and includes 
more than 140 foreign spy organizations trying to infiltrate U.S. networks.
Attacks on the network have also grown from exploitative to disruptive 
to more destructive. And it's the destructive threats that worry the 
general.

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