Cyberterrorism Hype v. Fact

“Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair caught the media’s attention recently with two major headlines when he presented this year’s Annual Threat Assessment (PDF) of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The first was his statement that the United States is ‘severely threatened’ by cyberattacks of ‘extraordinary sophistication.’ The second was that al-Qaeda is intent on striking within the United States in the next six months. Both sections of the assessment are chilling, but they are unrelated.

Blair said that the United States faces challenges in cyberspace from nation states, terrorist networks, organized criminal groups, individuals, and other cyberactors. He went on to say, ‘Terrorist groups and their sympathizers have expressed interest in using cybermeans to target the United States and its citizens.’ Fortunately, interest does not equal capability. After raising the specter of cyberterrorism, Blair never mentioned the cyberthreat from al-Qaeda anywhere in the five pages he devoted to their plans to strike the United States. “

(Source: Cyberterrorism Hype v. Fact – Council on Foreign Relations)