U.S. Power Grid Target for Terrorists

WASHINGTON – A major cyber attack somewhere in the United States is becoming increasingly possible, top government intelligence officials said Thursday, warning that an assault on America’s power-grid system “represents the battleground for the future.”

The officials, speaking at a special hearing on Capitol Hill, also said that while al-Qaida has been diminished after nine years of the U.S. war on terror, more foreign groups have risen up, increasing concerns among U.S. authorities that one of them may eventually get their hands on a nuclear device.

“I don’t think there’s any question but that this is a real national-security threat that we have to pay attention to,” CIA Director Leon Panetta said of a cyber attack in this country. “The Internet, the cyber arena … this is a vastly growing area of information that can be used and abused in a number of ways.”