

Earlier this week, the nation's chief spy screeched about of the danger of cyber attacks – and the need to monitor what everyone does online, in response. Now, the CIA has made an usually public warning about the perils that network strikes can pose. Hackers have tried to extort money from overseas utility companies. At least in one case, the Washington Post reports, the online attackers messed with an electrical grid, disrupting ing power in several cities.

"We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet," Tom Donahue, the CIA's top cybersecurity analyst, told a New Orleans trade conference...

He did not specify where or when the attacks took place, their duration or the amount of money demanded.

Little said the agency would not comment further...

Cyber extortion is a growing threat in the United States, and attackers have radically increased their take from online gambling sites, e-commerce sites and banks, which pay the money to prevent sites from being shut down and to keep the public from knowing their sites have been penetrated, said Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute, the cybersecurity education group that sponsored the meeting.

"The

CIA wouldn't have changed its policy on disclosure if it wasn't important," Paller said. "Donahue wouldn't have said it publicly if he didn't think the threat was very large and that companies needed to fix things right now."