U.S. should prepare for a cyber attack that will ruin the country in just 15 MINUTES, expert warns



Former head of counterterrorism security has warned of an impending cyber attack



The U.S. should prepare for a cyber attack that could cause destruction on the scale of 9/11 in less than 15 minutes, a leading anti-terrorism expert has warned.

Richard Clarke, a former adviser to both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, suggests that the lack of security in place against such an attack could lead to an 'electronic Pearl Harbor'.

Writing in his new book Cyber War: The Next National Security Threat, penned with Robert Knake, Mr Clarke says: 'The biggest secret about cyber war may be that at the very same time the U.S. prepares for offensive cyber war, it is continuing policies that make it impossible to defend effectively from cyber attack.'

In the book, Mr Clarke suggests that a cyber attack would first target the Pentagon's computer network, before affecting the rest of the country's electrical grids.



He writes: 'It could blow up pipelines. It could damage electrical power grids. It could confuse financial records, so that we would not know who owned what.'

Mr Clarke says the cyber war could be started by an enemy country of the U.S. or a lone hacker.

He insists that while the U.S. government has introduced measures to protect the country's computer networks, they will not be enough to prevent the attack.

Mr Clarke, who warned of the dangers of terrorist group Al-Qaeda during his time as the former head of counterterrorism security, also said the cyber attack could have similar consequences to 9/11.



However, U.S. President Barack Obama's administration appears to disagree with Mr Clarke's prediction.

Howard Schmidt, Obama's recently appointed cyber expert, said in an interview with Wired.com in March: 'There is no cyber war. I think that is a terrible metaphor and I think that is a terrible concept.

'As for getting into the power grid. I can't see that that's realistic.'

