Intelligence Director Warns of Cyber-Attack

The head of the United States intelligence network said yesterday concerns of a terrorist cyber-attack rank near the top of his list (see GSN, Nov. 9, 2006).

Mike McConnell, who replaced John Negroponte as director of national intelligence nearly two months ago, said a cyber-assault could be paired with use of biological agents with significant effect.

Speaking before a gathering of about 200 government employees and contractors at a conference in Washington, McConnell said a computer attack on the U.S. financial sector could come at the same time anthrax-laced letters are mailed, Bloomberg News reported (See GSN, April 2).

“It would have a devastating impact,” he said, according to the wire service.

McConnell said preventing such attacks on vulnerable computer networks by terrorists or foreign governments will be a focus during his tenure as intelligence head (see GSN, Feb. 26).

McConnell also used the conference as a forum to air some of his problems with the relatively new position he inherited from Negroponte.  The post was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes when U.S. intelligence agencies underwent a restructuring.

The position, McConnell said, does not carry sufficient authority to effectively run the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies.  The director has no power to remove employees giving sub-par performances, he said.

“You cannot hire or fire,” McConnell said, according.  “It puts you in a challenging management position.”

The director of national intelligence also decried the lengthy process required to gain security clearances for government employees dealing with sensitive material.  In some cases it can take as long as a year, McConnell said, while noting in the financial industry similar background checks can be completed in a number of weeks.

“I have a great deal of frustration” with the clearance process,” McConnell said according to the wire service (Bloomberg News/New York Times, April 4).

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