The UN International Telecommunications Union has warned:

The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower.  Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack.

Hyperbole?  Ask Estonia.

The FBI now ranks cybercrime as the third-greatest threat to U.S. national security, after nuclear war and weapons of mass destruction.

I believe the Bureau should consider cybercrime/warfare a weapon of mass destruction.  And the ITU is only half right.  While it is true that no nation is immune from cyberattack, there IS a cyberspace super-power;  the United States.  And leading the U.S. in developing cyber defenses is the National Security Agency.

LTG Keith Alexander is one of America’s great unsung heroes.  As NSA’s Director he has transformed the agency into a dynamic force for protecting our nation against digital attacks.

In April, LTG Alexander spoke to the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco.  You can see his presentation here, but here are some of the sobering thoughts he brought to the gathering:

During World War II and coming up to today, the networks are pretty much separate. Point to point circuits, analog circuits. Everything was going good. Now what’s happened? The digital revolution. We’ve put all that on one network. Our government, our private, our industry, our allies — all on one network.

We don’t have a network that we defend on, a network that we exploit on, and a network that’s attacked on, or a network for one and a network for the other. And it’s not just the U.S. It’s not just the government, not just industry, it’s all of us. All together.

And what’s on this network today …?  Everything. America’s business and government runs on that network. Everything that we do. All our stuff. Medical records, everything. Our national security’s on there, and our allies. So that’s the problem.

LTG Alexander gave these statistics, gleaned from industry sources:

• In 2008, 210 billion e-mails sent PER DAY
• 2 million per second
• The number of internet hosts by the year 2015 will exceed the human population
• Terrorists groups are active on over 4,000 web sites
• There are 32,000 suspected cyber attacks every day
• Over 100 foreign intelligence organizations are trying to hack into U.S. networks

He also gave the following quote from a Chinese military publication in 1996:

An adversary wishing to destroy the United States only has to mess up the computer systems of it’s banks by high tech means.  This would disrupt and destroy the U.S. economy.

Clearly, in 1996 the Chinese didn’t see Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Tim Geithner and Barack Obama coming.

There is no shortage of warnings – and proof – that cybersecurity is critical to NATIONAL security.

Alexander has emphasized that “the threat is real.”  From hackers, to terrorists, criminal organizations, to foreign intelligence services our critical information systems are constantly under attack.  At risk are telecommunications, utilities, infrastructure, energy, financial, medical, retail, transportation, government, educational and other systems and networks crucial to our lives.

Consider the disruption caused by three airplanes crashing into as many buildings in 2001.  A coordinated cyberattack in just a couple of American cities would shut down the entire nation – possibly for years.

World War 3 may well be even more global than it’s predecessors.  It will also be more quickly fought and, unlike WWI and II, it WILL be fought within the United States.

We are fortunate, though, to have a Supreme Digital Allied Commander like Keith Alexander.