Threat Management

Clapper: Cyberattacks are getting worse

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned that cyberattacks and threats from hackers are getting worse.

“Cyber threats to U.S. national and economic security are increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication and severity of impact,” Clapper said before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

During his testimony, Clapper discussed the U.S.'s cyber agreement with China. He raised concerns that the agreement is unlikely to halt China's cyber attacks, noting that the agreement makes no mention of specific penalties for violations.

Cybersecurity professionals have raised similar concerns about the rise of cyber threats, especially threats originating from China. In speaking with SCMagazine.com, Accellion CEO Yogen Edholm, said cyberattacks have increased in frequency and sophistication.

Edholm believes cyberattacks now occur two to three times more frequently than just a year ago. “There is a much more developed aftermarket for this information,” he told SCMagazine.com. “Once they get this information, they use it and leverage it far beyond anything that we could ever imagine.”

George Kurtz, Crowdstrike co-founder, told SCMagazine.com that the cybersecurity environment “has only worsened.” Referring to the U.S. cyber agreement with China, Kurtz cautioned, “I think we're fooling ourselves if we think China is going to suddenly shut down their entire cyberspying operation.”

Edholm at Accellion said, "We would just like China to play by the rules the way that they have been played in the past."

Kurtz said even if China ceases its cyberespionage activities against U.S. companies, he believes the nation will continue to engage in theft of intellectual property that involves multinational corporations' offices outside the U.S.

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