Saturday, March 06, 2010:
The United States not only faces a threat from al Qaeda, but also from hostile states and cyber criminal gangs as they seek to target government and private computer networks, said FBI director Robert Mueller on Thursday. In a talk at an Internet security conference, Mueller said militant organisations like al Qaeda used the Internet for training new members and to carry out terrorist attacks, says Reuters.
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"Terrorists have shown a clear interest in pursuing hacking skills and they will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders with an eye toward combining physical attacks with cyber attacks," Mueller said. He said a clever cyberattack can be as devastating as a "well-placed bomb." He warned that certain foreign powers, which he didn't name, were also a major threat as they use the Internet for espionage.
"Apart from the terrorist threat, nation-states may use the Internet as a means of attack for political ends," he said. "Nation-state hackers or mercenaries for hire" as well as rogue hackers or international criminal syndicates are targeting government networks", he added.
"They seek our technology, our intelligence, our intellectual property, even our military weapons and strategies."
These observations were made after several international Internet security-related incidents.
Two months ago Internet giant Google reported it had detected a sophisticated online attack on its systems which stemmed from China. At least 20 other companies had been targeted.
Ashish Joshi, EFYTIMES News Network
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