President Trump should have issued a more full-throated condemnation this week of Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum.

But, Coats added, Trump was right to point out this week that Russian interference is just one of many potential threats facing the country.

Still, Coats suggested that the outsize focus on Russian interference risks blinding Americans to other, potentially more serious threats.

“I’m concerned about a cyber-9/11,” Coats said. “Let’s say you shut down Wall Street for a week. What does that do to the world’s markets and people’s investments? … What about an attack on the electric grid in New England in January, that’s sophisticated to take it out for three days. How many people will die?”

In a more light-hearted moment, Coats also assured attendees at the conference that the soccer ball that Putin hand-delivered to Trump at Monday’s press conference in Helsinki did not pose a security risk.

“I bet that soccer ball’s been looked at very carefully,” Coats said, laughing. – READ MORE

President Trump’s director of national intelligence warned Friday that foreign hackers are attempting potentially crippling cyberattacks against critical U.S. infrastructure, relating a rash of recent assaults with “alarming activities” detected by U.S. intelligence prior to terrorists striking on September 11, 2001.

“The system was blinking red. Here we are nearly two decades later and I’m here to say the warning lights are blinking red again,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said at an event held by the Hudson Institute think tank.

“Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack,” Mr. Coats continued, citing daily assaults waged by hackers from countries including predominately Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Invoking Sept. 11, Mr. Coats said that the wave of recent assaults waged against targets including government, businesses and energy sectors is reminiscent of the flurry of Al Qaeda activity witnessed by U.S. intelligence officials prior to the terrorist attacks. – READ MORE