An al Qaeda video calling for "electronic jihad" illustrates the
urgent need for cybersecurity standards for the most critical networks
in the United States, a group of senators said.
The race to stop al Qaeda
Penetrating al Qaeda's most dangerous
"Internet piracy is an
important field of jihad," the narrator of the video says, according to a
translation. He advises followers with expertise to "target the
websites and information systems of big companies and government
agencies of the countries that attack Muslims."
The video calls for
cyberattacks against networks such as the electric grid and compares
vulnerabilities in the United States' critical cyber networks to the
vulnerabilities in the country's aviation system before 9/11, according
to a statement Tuesday from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs.
"This is the clearest
evidence we've seen that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups want to
attack the cyber systems of our critical infrastructure," committee
chairman Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said in the
statement. "Congress needs to act now to protect the American public
from a possible devastating attack on our electric grid, water delivery
systems or financial networks, for example."
The race to stop al Qaeda
Penetrating al Qaeda's most dangerous
Ranking committee member
Susan Collins, R-Maine, said al Qaeda realizes that a cyberattack on
critical infrastructure might cause more harm than a traditional
physical attack.
"That is why the Senate
needs to act on our bipartisan Cybersecurity Act that requires minimum
security performance requirements for key critical infrastructure cyber
networks," she said in the committee statement.
The Department of
Homeland Security has received more than 50,000 reports of cyber
intrusions or attempted intrusions since October 2011, an increase of
10,000 reports over the same period the previous year, the statement
said.
The Senate committee said the video, made by al Qaeda's media outlet, was obtained by the FBI.
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