CIA director: 'Terrorism is greatly amplified' by Internet

WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- In order to counteract the threat of terrorism, the United States must turn to the digital realm, which has "vulnerabilities that can be exploited to harm our national security," CIA Director John Brennan said Friday.

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Affairs, Brennan said for all its good, the digital domain can be used by terror groups like the Islamic State to both spread propaganda and execute cyber attacks.

"The overall threat of terrorism is greatly amplified by today's interconnected world, where an incident in one corner of the globe can instantly spark a reaction thousands of miles away; and where a lone extremist can go online and learn how to carry out an attack without ever leaving home," he said.

The Internet has been used to spread of propaganda by IS -- also identified by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL. The group has used social media, particularly Twitter, to post news and videos of its executions and exploits around the world.

A Brookings Institution report estimates there are at least 46,000 Twitter accounts held by Islamic State supporters.

Twitter employees received death threats earlier this month after the site shut down some 2,000 of those accounts. The move led to IS starting up its own social media website, 5elafabook.com, which was temporarily shut down earlier this week.

"New technologies can help groups like ISIL coordinate operations, attract new recruits, disseminate propaganda, and inspire sympathizers across the globe to act in their name," Brennan said Friday.

In addition to using the Internet to spread propaganda, Brennan said terror groups and other criminals threaten to penetrate government and private business networks.

"Government institutions are under constant assault, and private companies are spending enormous sums of money to defend against hacking attempts, denial of service attacks, and other efforts to disrupt their networks," he said. "The attack on Sony late last year was a reminder of just how serious the threat is and how quickly it can take place."

"CIA is working with our partners across the federal government to strengthen cyber defenses, to share expertise, and to collaborate with the private sector to mitigate these threats. Together, we have advanced our understanding of threats in the cyber realm. But just as we have improved our knowledge as well as our capabilities, so too have our adversaries. They are skilled, agile, and determined, and matching them will require focus and imagination -- not just from government, but from private industry as well," Brennan added.

Yahoo's chief information officer and cybersecurity expert Alex Stamos said earlier this week there's a shortage of workers with the skills necessary to halt cyber attacks.

"It is pretty much impossible to hire folks within the indicated backgrounds," Stamos said. "There are maybe four or five thousand people in North America I can hire right now who have the technical skills keen to us."

U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., congressional cybersecurity caucus co-chair and a former member of the Homeland Security Committee, said the country needs to invest in cyber education and training.

"Cybersecurity should be a universal concentration option for computer science and information technology programs at the collegiate level. It is an important specialty and one with tremendous growth potential," he added.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government created a new agency aimed at specifically dealing with cybersecurity last month. U.S. President Obama announced the creation of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, which will coordinate information between governmental agencies and businesses regarding cyber attacks.

The creation of the agency is the latest step by the White House to bolster national security and corporate interests from hackers. While the job of cyber security typically falls on several agencies, including the FBI, CIA and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency is aimed at filling in the gaps.

Amy R. Connolly contributed to this report.