Cyber attacks threaten the "very existence" of the US, according to a top FBI official charged with worrying about such things.
"The cyber threat can be an existential threat - meaning it can challenge our country's very existence, or significantly alter our nation's potential," Steven Chabinsky was quoted by Computerworld as telling a gathering of government IT types at the Federal Office Systems Exposition, better known as FOSE, in Washington DC on Tuesday.
"How we rise to the cybersecurity challenge will determine whether our nation's best days are ahead of us or behind us," he added.
Chabinsky wears a trio of hats in the cyber-wars. He's the assistant deputy director of National Intelligence for Cyber, the chair of the National Cyber Study Group, and the director of the Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force.
Whether you think he is merely fear-mongering in an attempt to bolster his budget's bottom line or instead calling attention to genuine - and heinous - vulnerabilities, Chabinsky was certainly emphatic in his warnings. "I am convinced that given enough time, motivation and funding," he said, "a determined adversary will always - always - be able to penetrate a targeted system."
