National Security Division Focuses on Combating Cyberthreats

The U.S. Justice Department’s National Security Division, created in response to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks , is increasingly focused on an emergent menace: cyberthreats posed by foreign countries, from Russia to China, the division head said Thursday. “In the past years, [the division’s mission] has come increasingly to include a focus on cyber as part of the threat posed by certain foreign nations,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, citing the prosecution in recent years of hackers acting on behalf of China, Russia, Iran and the Islamic State terror group. Over the past two years, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials have been sounding alarm bells about cyberthreats presented by a variety of foreign actors, from Russian government efforts to disrupt U.S. elections to Chinese companies trying to steal U.S. trade secrets. In a report released in February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the worldwide cyberthreat was on the rise. “The potential for surprise in the cyber realm will increase in the next year and beyond as billions more digital devices are connected — with relatively little built-in security — and both nation states and malign actors become more emboldened and… Read full this story

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