Experts worry that a cyber attack on critical infrastructure in the United States is likely to occur within the next two years and the federal government may not be ready to handle it, according to a survey of 315 IT and security professionals attending Black Hat USA 2018.
The survey, conducted in May, covered a wide range of cybersecurity issues, from Russian election hacking to Facebook. Black Hat then released a comprehensive report today.
Only 11 percent of respondents did not think that an attack on the U.S. is imminent. Further, only 13 percent think that “Congress and the White House understand the cyber threat.”
“Our United States government has NO clue about technology, the Internet, and how our modern era’s data and information moves,” the report noted one respondent said. “It’s absolutely terrifying that these people make laws and guide our nation. They are obsolete.”
An attack by nations like Russia or China represented the biggest threat to U.S. infrastructure, according to 43 percent of those who responded, followed by “a lack of coordination between U.S. government entities and private industry” at 16 percent.
Read the full report from Black Hat.
