Intelligence Chief Says Cyberattack Threat Is Growing

By MARK MAZZETTI

Published: February 2, 2010

WASHINGTON — The threat of a crippling attack on computer and telecommunications networks is growing, America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers on Tuesday, as an increasingly sophisticated group of enemies has “severely threatened” the sometimes fragile systems undergirding the country’s information systems.
“Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private sector networks, undermining confidence in our information systems, and in the very information these systems were intended to convey,” Dennis C. Blairsaid in his prepared remarks to a Senate committee.
“Malicious cyber activity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication,” he said.
The decision by Mr. Blair to begin his annual testimony before Congress with the cyber threat points up the concerns among American intelligence officials about the potentially devastating consequences of a coordinated attack on the nation’s technology apparatus, sometimes called a “Cyber Pearl Harbor.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03intel.html