On Thursday, Feb. 26, James Clapper, the director of U.S. national intelligence, testifying on Capitol Hill said 2014 was the worst year on record for global terrorism, as he presented the annual worldwide threats assessment.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s top intelligence chief told members of Congress that terror attacks reached their highest number since such records started being archived.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the final accounting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years (since) such data has been compiled,\u201d he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n
Clapper said in the first nine months of 2014, preliminary data from a University of Maryland research unit show nearly 13,000 terror acts that killed some 31,000 people,\u201d Fox News reported.<\/p>\n
In all of 2013, the numbers were 1,500 terror strikes and about 22,000 fatalities. The 2014 records showed the Islamic State terrorist group was responsible for most of the atrocities in those first nine months. About 50 percent of all the attacks occurred in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clapper said.<\/p>\n
Some of the group\u2019s most vile acts were to post videos of members chopping off the heads of journalists and aid workers from countries including the U.S., Britain, and Japan.<\/p>\n
Clapper opened his prepared remarks by discussing cyber threats: \u201cCyber threats to U.S. national and economic security are increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication, and severity of impact,\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cyber threat cannot be eliminated; rather, cyber risk must be managed,\u201d Clapper said.<\/p>\n
As they have in recent years, U.S. intelligence agencies once again listed cyber attacks as the top danger to U.S. national security, ahead of terrorism. Saboteurs, spies and thieves are expanding their computer attacks against a vulnerable American internet infrastructure, chipping away at U.S. wealth and security over time, Clapper said.<\/p>\n
Clapper also told the committee that the U.S. had elevated its appraisal of cyber threats from Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese unspecified Russian actors have successfully compromised the product supply chains of three (control system) vendors so that customers download exploitative malware directly from the vendors\u2019 websites along with routine software updates, according to private sector cyber security experts,\u201d the assessment said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than a \u2018Cyber Armageddon\u2019 scenario that debilitates the entire US infrastructure, we envision something different. We foresee an ongoing series of low-to-moderate level cyber attacks from a variety of sources over time, which will impose cumulative costs on U.S. economic competitiveness and national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are the top nation-state cyber threats, the intelligence assessment found. Traditionally, China had been first on that list, but Russia was listed first this year for the first time. Previously, intelligence officials have said that hackers linked to China have been probing the U.S. electrical grid in an effort to lay the groundwork for attack.<\/p>\n
Clapper did not elaborate on his cryptic comment about Russia\u2019s cyber capabilities, but the written assessment he delivered said that Russia\u2019s defense ministry is establishing its own cyber command responsible for offensive activities, \u201cincluding propaganda operations and inserting malware into enemy command and control systems.\u201d The U.S. Cyber Command plans its own offensive operations, about which little is known.<\/p>\n
The intelligence assessment noted public reports that detail how \u201cRussian cyber actors\u201d are developing the ability to remotely hack into industrial control systems that run electric power grids, urban mass-transit systems, air-traffic control networks and oil and gas pipelines.<\/p>\n
The assessment noted that U.S. intelligence agencies have improved their ability to figure out who is perpetrating cyber attacks, despite the many ways such attacks can be disguised. Still, the lack of international norms makes the behavior difficult to deter, the assessment says.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, \u201cthe muted response by most victims to cyber attacks has created a permissive environment in which low-level attacks can be used as a coercive tool short of war, with relatively low risk of retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The assessment said officials are increasingly concerned that cyber attackers will seek to change or destroy crucial data in a way that could undermine financial markets and business confidence.<\/p>\n
Beyond cyber, the assessment surveyed an increasingly uncertain world, noting the existence of more terrorist safe havens than at any time in recent history.<\/p>\n
On terrorism, the assessment noted that \u201cSunni violent extremists\u201d such as the Islamic State group are \u201cgaining momentum\u201d and that the groups \u201cchallenge local and regional governance and threaten U.S. allies, partners, and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe threat to key US allies and partners will probably increase, but the extent of the increase will depend on the level of success that Sunni violent extremists achieve in seizing and holding territory,\u201d the assessment says.<\/p>\n
Another variable is \u201cthe durability of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria,\u201d the assessment says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomegrown violent extremists continue to pose the most likely threat to the homeland,\u201d Clapper said.<\/p>\n
Six months into the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, Clapper described a stalemate, with neither side able to \u201cachieve its territorial ambitions.\u201d.<\/p>\n
The growing prominence of Shiite militias in Iraq, and their campaign of \u201cretribution killings and forced displacement of Sunni civilians,\u201d threatens to undermine the fight against the Islamic State group, the assessment said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnpredictable instability is the new normal,\u201d said Clapper.<\/p>\n