Former FBI director warns of 'crippling effect' cyber terrorism can have on US infrastructure

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ANI Washington
Last Updated : Jul 08 2013 | 3:45 PM IST

Former FBI director Louis Freeh has warned the US intelligence and security officials about the growing cyber terrorism and the necessity of doing a 'better job' at analyzing and thwarting cyber-related crimes.

Freeh said that hackers could go beyond stealing someone's credit card number or hacking the ATM machines and gain access to computer systems controlling power plants, the navigation of aircraft and ships even switching of street lights which could possibly used to gridlock societies and kill large number of people, the Politico reports.

He said that the potential for mass destruction in terms of life and property is only limited by the attackers' access and success in penetrating and hijacking the networks.

On NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Freeh said that Snowden should not have disclosed information publicly and rather used the internal reporting processes for alleging wrongdoing.

He further said that NSA gave Snowden system-wide access with 'the ability to extract and copy top-secret documents detailing secured and elaborate programs.

According to the report, Freeh said that the challenge before the intelligence agencies is to effectively sort the vast amount of data before any attack takes place, adding that it is not about the data but about how the agencies protect it, manage it and what and what people expect from its utilization.

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First Published: Jul 08 2013 | 3:33 PM IST