Cyber Command chief details threats to U.S.

Source: Lance Whitney, CNET.

If the United States wants to defend itself against cyberattacks, it needs to focus on four key areas, according to United States Cyber Command head and NSA Director Army Gen. Keith Alexander.

Speaking Tuesday on the first day of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s LandWarNet conference in Tampa, Fla., Alexander discussed the dangers to the country’s military networks and what the U.S. must do to safeguard them.

The general said the threat of cyberattack affects more than 7 million different computers on more than 1,500 individual networks maintained by the Defense Department.

“On any given day, our networks are probed over 250,000 times an hour,” said Alexander. That figure adds up to 6 million per day and includes more than 140 foreign spy organizations trying to infiltrate U.S. networks.