From Andrea Shalal-Esa and Deborah Charles, Reuters:  The top U.S. general in charge of cyber security warned on Tuesday that the United States is increasingly vulnerable to attacks like those that destroyed data on tens of thousands of computers in Saudi Arabia and South Korea in the past year.

Army General Keith Alexander, who heads the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, told the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit in Washington that U.S. computer networks were already under constant attack and billions of dollars worth of intellectual property were flowing out of the country each year.

"Mark my words, it’s going to get worse. The disruptive and destructive attacks on our country will get worse and … if we don’t do something, the theft of intellectual property will get worse," Alexander said at the summit.

Alexander said he was not aware of any cyber assaults against the United States as destructive as the one that damaged computers at Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Aramco, last year. But he said similar attacks could well be seen "in the not-too-distant future" on key U.S. infrastructure sectors, such as public utilities and financial services.  (photo: cybercomnsa)

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