No hard evidence exists that shows a cyberterrorism attack on the U.S., but when such an attack comes, it is likely to be much more harmful than the current crop of relatively unsophisticated viruses and worms that have caused billions of dollars in damages, a cybersecurity expert said Monday. Terrorism groups have planned cyberterrorism attacks for years, and those attacks are waiting for a vulnerability to trigger them, predicted Norm Laudermilch, vice president of managed security services for VeriSign Inc. “Anybody think we’re dealing with dumb terrorists?” Laudermilch asked a crowd during a seminar on cyberterrorism at Computer Security Institute’s Computer Security Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C. “We’re not going to have a month to patch our systems, because the plan is going to be already in place.” Laudermilch classified about three-quarters of the attacks VeriSign sees on its customers’ networks as “sport” attacks — those done by amateur hackers trying to see what damage they can do. And while only about 5 percent of the attacks Laudermilch sees would be classified as motivated by politics or a foreign government, companies need to be prepared when and if more of those kinds of attacks come, because enemies of the U.S. are strongly motivated by hate, he said. Full Story
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