The first Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary said Sunday that the threats from abroad are worse today than what the United States faced immediately following the 9/11 attacks.

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Tom Ridge, who served as DHS secretary from 2003 to 2005, painted a bleak picture of the dangers posed by groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“The threats are much more serious and much more complicated than on Sept. 12, 2001,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that law enforcement is overwhelmed by the possibility of a domestic, lone-wolf attack.

The comments came during a segment on the ISIS threat in the wake of an attempted attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in a Dallas suburb.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the assault, though law enforcement say ties to the terrorist group have not been verified.

Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy for Iraq and Iran, emphasized repeatedly in an interview that defeating ISIS is going to take years.

“We’ve been clear from day one … it is going to take a very long time to defeat [them],” he told CNN.

“This is a long-term campaign. It’s three yards, hard yards, every single month, month to month, and it is going to take years … It’s a long-term challenge, it’s a long-term campaign.”