China and “one or two others” can shut down the U.S. electric grids and other critical infrastructure and is performing electronic reconnaissance on a regular basis, said NSA director Admiral Michael Rogers, testifying Thursday (Nov. 20) at a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on U.S. efforts to combat cybersecurity.

“All of that leads me to believe it is only a matter of when, not if, we are going to see something dramatic,” he said. In cyberspace, “you can literally do almost anything you want, and there is not a price to pay for it.

“China’s economic cyber espionage … has grown exponentially in terms of volume and damage done to our nation’s economic future,” he added. “The Chinese intelligence services that conduct these attacks have little to fear because we have no practical deterrents to that theft. This problem is not going away until that changes.”