WASHINGTON, November 20 (Sputnik) – The United States will encounter a major cyber attack in the coming years, Director of US National Security Agency (NSA) Michael Rogers said Thursday.
“I fully expect that during my time as the Commander, we are going to be tested help defend critical infrastructure within the United States because it is under attack by some foreign nation or some individual or a group,” Admiral Rogers said at a US House Select Intelligence Committee hearing.
“It is only the matter of the “when,” not the “if” that we are going to see something traumatic,” Rogers stressed, adding that he bets “it happens before 2025”.
Over 60 percent of Internet experts and builders agree that a major cyber attack will cause “significant loss of life or property losses, damage, theft at the levels of tens of billions of dollars,” according to a Pew Research Internet Project poll.
A Gallup poll published in late October suggests that almost 70 percent of US citizens fear cybercrime more than burglary, sexual assault or getting murdered. Out of over 1,000 respondents across the country, 69 percent said that they are worried about their credit card information stolen by hackers, while 62 percent said that they are afraid of their computer or smartphone being hacked.
The US Department of Homeland Security estimates that more than 1,000 US businesses have been targets of cyber attacks. Cybercrime costs the United States about $100 billion annually, which is more than any other country, according to a study by Intel Security and the Center for Strategic and International studies released earlier this year.
