The Axe Files, featuring David Axelrod, is a podcast distributed by CNN and produced at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. The author works for the podcast.

Chicago (CNN) Russia's successful incursion into the 2016 presidential election has opened a new, menacing phase in cyberwarfare and is a harbinger of attacks to come, says President Barack Obama's former top counterterrorism adviser.

"We in the United States have ... crossed into a new threshold where we have state actors and others trying to use these cybertools in new ways to intrude in our election process, to weaponize information," Lisa Monaco told David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN.

Monaco, who served as Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, added that it was the consensus of the US intelligence community that "we're bound to see (attacks) like this again," initiated by adversarial nations or non-state actors.

She says the US must make it a national priority to better understand the nature of this new threat in order to effectively guard against it.

"I really think we need to be turning a lot more attention to understanding that (threat), shoring up our defenses, and understanding how we can prevent it from happening again," Monaco said.

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