Federal facilities, electric power plants and other portions of the nation's critical infrastructure are highly vulnerable to potential cyber-attacks from terrorist groups, rogue nations, disgruntled employees and hackers, the new head of the FBI's cyber-crime fighting unit said today.. . .
Federal facilities, electric power plants and other portions of the nation's critical infrastructure are highly vulnerable to potential cyber-attacks from terrorist groups, rogue nations, disgruntled employees and hackers, the new head of the FBI's cyber-crime fighting unit said today.

Ronald L. Dick said that a cyber-attack seriously could damage the nation's economy without closer cooperation among federal agencies and better coordination between corporate America and the FBI-led, multi-agency National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC). More than 5,000 public and private sector sites have been identified as critical and vulnerable, according to the NIPC's Leslie G. Wiser Jr., an FBI veteran.

"Information warfare is obviously something the United States, the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the CIA, the FBI and our private sector partners are very concerned with. We are picking up signs that terrorist organizations are looking at the use of technology," he said, adding that while no attacks thus far have succeeded in disrupting the flow of goods and services, the likelihood of economic disruption in the future is significant.

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