Hair-raising Testimony

"If the nation went to war today in a cyber war, we would lose. We're the most vulnerable. We're the most connected. We have the most to lose."

That was one of several alarming predictions offered yesterday by Michael McConnell, former director of national intelligence, in testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

Here's another: "We will not mitigate this [cybersecurity] risk. We will talk about it. We will wave our arms. We will have a bill. But we will not mitigate this risk, and as a consequence of not mitigating the risk, we're going to have a catastrophic event."

"In our wonderful democracy, it usually takes a forcing function to move us to action," he said. "It's going to take that catastrophic event."

What might happen? He suggested that China and Russia -- countries that are frequently blamed for cyber attacks and cyber espionage -- would not benefit from a large-scale raid on U.S. networks. Likewise, cyber criminals have no interest in hindering the flows of money and data that keep them in business.

A third category of cyber villain, however, poses a greater danger -- the "non-state actor" who is not motivated by greed but hews to "a different world view" and wants "to destroy the information infrastructure which powers much of the modern world," Mr. McConnell testified.

The coming cyber catastrophe will spur the federal government to dramatically increase its oversight of the Internet, he said. The only thing that might head off that scenario, he argued, is solid legislation that unifies the federal government's cybersecurity efforts, provides money for training, and demands more from both the public and private sectors.

Other witnesses offered similar views, which undoubtedly pleased the committee's chairman, John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D., W.Va.), who has a bill pending that would implement many of Mr. McConnell's recommendations. -- TL