A global cyber arms race is engulfing the Internet and the best way to counter the rapidly escalating threat is combining the efforts of U.S. agencies, private firms and international allies, cyber security officials said on Tuesday.
Cyber experts from across the U.S. government, speaking at a conference at Georgetown University, said organized crime, espionage and security activity on the Internet pose a rising threat to U.S. intellectual property, military superiority and critical infrastructure.
"What we're looking at is a global cyber arms race," said Rear Admiral Samuel Cox, director of intelligence at U.S. Cyber Command, which was set up 18 months ago to protect Pentagon computer networks and conduct offensive cyber operations if the president orders them.
"It's not proceeding at a leisurely or even a linear fashion but in fact is accelerating. I wouldn't claim that it's following Moore's law, but the curve looks kind of similar," he said, referring to a computer industry rule of thumb that computer processing power doubles every couple of years.
Howard Schmidt, cyber security coordinator at the White House, said more than $8 trillion worth of transactions were carried over wired and wireless networks each year.
"This is not just a national security issue," he told the conference. "It's a national security, public safety as well as economic."
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