NSA chief warns ‘when, not if’ a foreign country will hack U.S. infrastructure
SAN FRANCISCO — It's only a matter of time before a nation-state executes a successful cyber attack that causes significant damage to critical infrastructure in the U.S., the head of the National Security Agency told an audience of corporate cybersecurity specialists.
Adm. Michael Rogers issued his warning in a keynote at the 2016 RSA Conference, where he spoke about working to bridge the growing disconnect between the public and private sectors when it comes to cybersecurity.
Rogers said he worries over an infrastructure attack in the wake of a December incident in Ukraine that knocked parts of the country's power grid offline. According to Rogers, the attackers not only took down the control systems for the power grid, but anticipated how engineers would respond, allowing them to slow down the process of bringing the grid back.
"Seven weeks ago it was the Ukraine," he said. "That isn't the last we are going to see of this. That worries me.”
