James Clapper: “At present the Web is much less free, extra segmented and fewer safe than it has ever been”

Written by John Hewitt Jones
December 8, 2022 | FEDSCOOP

Coping with an more and more fragmented international web stays one of the crucial vital international coverage challenges going through the US, says retired director of Nationwide Intelligence Lieutenant Common James Clapper.

Talking Thursday on the Fortinet Safety Transformation Summit hosted by FedScoop, Clapper mentioned the numerous variations of the web that exist in authoritarian regimes demand a nuanced response.

“The Web immediately is much less free, extra fragmented and fewer safe than it ever was…the Web as we might have appreciated to reside it’s useless,” mentioned the previous chief intelligence group as DNI beneath the Obama administration and beforehand as Undersecretary of Protection Intelligence in two earlier administrations.

Clapper famous that over the previous seven years, 60 nation states have briefly lower web connectivity greater than 900 instances.. This contrasts with the US, the place a free web is now the cornerstone of democracy and the economic system, with 70% of the economic system’s new worth anticipated to be digital within the coming years.

Talking on the occasion, Clapper mentioned the method to coping with the fragmented web ought to deal with consolidating its imaginative and prescient for the web with buddies and allies and deploying strain extra focused on adversaries conducting offensive cyber operations.

The previous intelligence chief added that additional integration of US cyber capabilities with its army equipment stays essential and highlighted the challenges businesses face when looking for to conduct offensive cyber operations.

“We’re failing to impose adequate prices on attackers,” he mentioned, noting that many hostile international locations don’t adhere to cyber requirements and authorized frameworks.

Clapper added that cybercriminals’ capability to destroy huge worth within the US economic system stays a serious concern. “Cybercrime must be thought-about a menace to nationwide safety.”