Clapper: Cyberattacks a Bigger Threat Than ISIS

'Catastrophic' Cyberattacks the Biggest Threat

Testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper talked of myriad threats to US national security interests, saying that cyberattacks were the “biggest” threat of all.

It seems an incredible argument to make, as the Obama Administration is in the middle of escalation in the ISIS war and talking up the threat of “Russian aggression” on a near-daily basis.

Still, Clapper insists that hackers are the real threat, and that in the years to come they’ll threaten America’s “economic competitiveness and national security” more than anything else.

Considering how much wars have cost the US economy, that too is a bold prediction, but it reflects US intelligence officials across several agencies seeking to get more and more involved in the Internet, and the easiest way to do that is to present it as some sort of mortal threat.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.