But federal agencies only recently have begun stepping up to their defensive responsibilities. Congress has grown more concerned about the looming specter of information warfare. In this increasingly interconnected world, we re either going to prioritize our resources better to meet this challenge . . Only a fine line separates the exploits of a PhantomD from the assaults of cyber warriors. Cyberterrorism is meant to demonstrate power and wreak havoc, says Rich Stiennon, a security analyst with Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn., information technology research firm.
Hackers do it because they can criminals do it to gain money.
Cyberterrorism is so much easier, its only goal is to find resources and destroy them. The threat of information warfare grows by the day. Countries are developing a capacity for information warfare, and the federal government needs to be prepared for that kind of attack, should it come, says Sallie McDonald, assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration s Office of Information Assurance and Critical Infrastructure Protection. Over the last decade, numerous civilian and military teams have been created to monitor government networks and react to the ever-growing number of cyber events. The Defense Department identifies thousands of intrusions into its systems every day.