US would lose cyber war?

The Hill:

A former intelligence chief warned lawmakers Tuesday the U.S. would lose a cyber war waged today.

John Michael McConnell, a former Navy vice admiral and director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush, told the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing Tuesday afternoon that the United States was the "most vulnerable" target for a massive, crippling cyber attack, primarily because the country is also "the most connected" to the Web.

He offered the panel a stern warning: "If we were in a cyber war today, we would lose."

"We would lose," McConnell repeated.

McConnell also said he feared it would "take that catastrophic event" to get lawmakers to take action to strengthen cyber security.

He sugggested a devastating attack would signal to both voters and their representatives that the Internet poses a real threat to private information, much-needed utilities, ubiquitous financial services and critical government resources.

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There is a real opportunity for a company that can develop the ability to resist cyber attacks and launch counter attacks. Google is not in that business but it has put together a team to do some cyber forensics on the attacked launched against its service in China and is getting very close to identifying those behind the attacks. The experience may make it better able to defend itself in teh future and may offer lessons for the government and utilities too.