For over five years we have been warning of a very real and very serious threat of an economic attack targeting our financial system. First, we produced a thorough and detailed report for the Pentagon. Next, we traveled to Washington dozens of times to brief major agencies and senior members in those agencies. Then, we produced a book (Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again) that described the risks in detail.
Of course, there have been multiple skeptics along the way. The skeptics argued that no one had the capability to bring down our economy. Even if one nation or terror group might have the capability, the skeptics then argued that they would be completely unwilling to bring harm to the American economy because it would in turn damage them.
We have refuted these very naive arguments. We’ve produced studies. We’ve pointed to foreign military doctrine and explained capabilities. We’ve shown WMD studies produced for the Intelligence Community. In reality, the case is iron-clad, beyond reasonable doubt or dispute.
Last evening, on 60 Minutes, the head of the NSA made our case for us. Take a look at these excerpts from Forbes today on that very subject:
Robert Lenzner, Forbes Staff 12/15/2013 @ 9:00PM |4,402 views
Some Foreign Nations Have The Cyberwar Capability To Destroy Our Financial System, NSA Admits
On the CBS program 60 Minutes tonight, National Security Agency (NSA) director Gen. Keith Alexander admitted that “a foreign national could impact and destroy a major portion of our financial system” by placing a virus in our computer systems “and literally take down the U.S. economy” if the virus was spread around . . .
… While mentioning known attacks by China, (Deborah) Plunkett (another NSA official spokesperson) told CBS: “Don’t be fooled. There are absolutely nation states who have the capability and the intention to do just that,” ie “literally take down the U.S. economy.” If this revelation is widely discussed tomorrow morning, it could very well have a serious negative effect on stock prices.
This article is available online at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2013/12/15/some-foreign-nations-have-cyberwar-capability-to-destroy-our-financial-system-nsa-admits/
While General Alexander was very careful with his words, the implications are extremely clear. First, there are nation states who have the capability to take down our economy. They could accomplish this by cyber means, an EMP attack, bear raids on systemic companies, a global effort to undermine the dollar, starting a massive bank run, or a combination of the above. However they would attempt it, the capability is clearly there. The second key point is that the intention is clearly evident as well, at least in some corners of certain regimes. Americans like to think that we are too strong to be taken down. We like to imagine that no one would want to do us harm. But we are wrong on both counts.The reality is that the debate is over. It is clear that our economy is vulnerable and there are plenty of global actors who want it brought down. The question now is “What should we do about it?” That’s the basis for our new book, Game Plan: How to Protect Yourself from the Coming Cyber-Economic Attack. The book is published by Regnery and will be released on January 6, 2014. In it, you will learn the how and why of the next economic attack, what our nation should be doing to prevent or at least lessen the risks, and how you as an individual can be protected.
