US defence secretary Leon Panetta has warned that the cyber attckers are developing the ability to strike the country’s power grids, financial systems and government systems.
Recently, Panetta had warned that the country could face a ‘cyber-Pearl Harbor’ and had drafted new rules which would enable military to move quickly to thwart any such attacks.
Panetta said, "We are confronting a series of threats to our national security."
He added that to address the challenges the Defense Department undertook a review of the defense strategy, where it established new defense priorities and focused on designing a force that would carry the US into the future.
Panetta’s warning follows recent attacks on several US banks and financial institutions launched by a group calling itself Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam.
The group said that the attacks were in response to a video uploaded in Google’s YouTube attacking the Prophet Muhammad and offending some Muslims.
In April this year, the US House of Representatives had passed a cybersecurity bill that will help US companies and government agencies better protect themselves from dangerous hackers and fight cyberattacks.