Cybersecurity

A series of hacking and virus incidents has dramatized the vulnerability of the United States to attacks launched in cyberspace by terrorists or hostile nations. In fact, U.S. authorities recently indicted a British man for hacking into 92 federal computer networks, including those used by the Department of Defense. A growing number of experts warn that the United States has grown too dependent upon networked computers using public telephone lines and that a small group of hackers working in an apartment halfway around the world could disrupt major sectors of the economy as well as the power grid, emergency-services operations and even the military. The Bush administration says it is committed to shoring up U.S. cybersecurity, but many experts say the measures taken so far are inadequate.