Cyber threat cannot be eliminated, says US intel chief

Chinese cyber espionage continues to target a broad spectrum of US interests, including national security information, sensitive economic data and intellectual property, America's spy chief today.
Appearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Clapper listed out Russia and China as the two major countries posing a threat to US cyber world.
Iran and North Korea are other countries posing challenge to the cyber system in the United States.
"Chinese cyber espionage continues to target a broad spectrum of US interests, ranging from national security information to sensitive economic data and US intellectual property," he said in his prepared remarks.

"Although China is an advanced cyber actor in terms of capabilities, Chinese hackers are often able to gain access to their targets without having to resort to using advanced capabilities.
"Improved US cybersecurity would complicate Chinese cyber espionage activities by addressing the less sophisticated threats, and raising the cost and risk if China persists," he said.

Clapper said Russia's Ministry of Defence was establishing a cyber command, which-according to senior Russian military officials-will be responsible for conducting offensive cyber activities, including propaganda operations and inserting malware into enemy command and control systems.
"Russia's armed forces are also establishing a specialised branch for computer network operations. Computer security studies assert that Russian cyber actors are developing means to remotely access industrial control systems (ICS) used to manage critical infrastructures," he added.

"Unknown Russian actors successfully compromised the product supply chains of at least three ICS vendors so that customers downloaded malicious software ("malware") designed to facilitate exploitation directly from the vendors' websites along with legitimate software updates, according to private sector cyber security experts," said the spy master.
Clapper said terrorist groups will continue to experiment with hacking, which could serve as the foundation for developing more advanced capabilities.
Terrorist sympathizers will probably conduct low-level cyber attacks on behalf of terrorist groups and attract attention of the media, which might exaggerate the capabilities and threat posed by these actors.