Defense Secretary Gates Warns of Cyber Threat in the Future

In speaking at a Wall Street Journal conference of chief executives, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned the citizens of potential cyber attacks in the future. He said that these attacks pose a huge threat in the future and must be tackled through joint efforts by US military and civilian agencies, reports Yahoo News.

Plus, he added, “There is a considerable current threat and that's just the reality that we all face," as per the Yahoo! News report.

According to the article, the Defense Secretary also stated that Pentagon had bolstered security for the military's networks and he hoped to do the same for defense industry contractors.

Since resources and expertise are concentrated in the military and the National Security Agency (News - Alert) (News - Alert) (NSA), the challenge of bringing them to the civilian and government sectors raises many legal questions about civil liberties, the article reports.

In other comments, as reported in the Yahoo! News article, Gates said "We are working with our partners in the defense industrial base to bring them under that umbrella, to provide them with protection." "The only defense the United States has I think against nation states and other potential threats in the cyber world is the National Security Agency (NSA)," noted Gates.

Furthermore, he continued, "You cannot replicate the NSA for domestic affairs, there isn't enough money, there isn't enough time and there isn't enough human talent.

So how do you let the domestic side of the government have access to the asset that the NSA represents, while at the same time taking into account the concerns for privacy and civil liberties?"

The former CIA director also highlighted an agreement approved by President Obama last month between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that he believed sets the tone for co-operation between the NSA and the domestic agencies on cyber security.

According to Gates, as presented in Yahoo! News, this new deal lets legal and other officials from the Department of Homeland Security to work from NSA's offices, as well as assign tasks to NSA to protect domestic networks.