The head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Thursday that significant new cyber threats to U.S. financial networks appeared to be emerging from an “unusual” source.
Committee Chairman Mike Rogers did not specifically identify the purported new threat nor its origin but referred several times to what he described as Iran’s growing cyber espionage capabilities.
“I think they’re (Iran) closer than we’d all like them to be to come in and cause trouble on our financial services networks,” the Michigan Republican told a cybersecurity conference hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Classified briefings about the possible new keyboard-launched threats may have revived prospects for stalled measures aimed at boosting cybersecurity in the “lame duck” congressional session after the Nov. 6 election, he said.
These secret briefings for lawmakers have highlighted a “threat that would target networks here from an unusual – careful here – source that has some very real consequences if we are not capable to deal with it,” he said.
The concern was with nation states that are gaining a cyberwarfare capability beyond those that “we often talk about” Rogers said. An unclassified U.S. intelligence report last year said the governments of China and Russia were expected to remain “aggressive and capable” collectors of U.S. trade secrets, particularly in cyberspace.
Iran says it has been adding to its cyber clout since its disputed nuclear program was damaged in 2010 by malicious computer code known as Stuxnet, reliably reported to have been developed by the United States.
A U.S. financial services industry group last month warned banks, brokerages and insurers to be on heightened alert for cyber attacks after the websites of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase experienced service disruptions.
Customers of Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services have reported trouble accessing their websites, as unusually high traffic appeared to crash or slow down the systems in the past two weeks.
Rogers on Thursday reiterated his concerns about alleged Chinese cyber theft of U.S. trade secrets, describing Beijing as “ferocious about seeking information.” He also cited what he called media reports that China likely was behind a disruption of a White House computer system disclosed this week.
“What people don’t realize is that we are in war today in cyberspace,” he said. “And this is the biggest national security threat I can think of that we are not prepared to handle in this country today.”
A Senate bill backed by President Barack Obama that would have allowed for greater information-sharing between intelligence agencies and private companies has met opposition from both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which objected to additional regulation, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which is worried about privacy issues.
Rogers and Representative C.A. Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the committee, have introduced separate bipartisan legislation that would clear the private sector to share information on cyber threats with the federal government and others on a voluntary basis.
Libby 
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Any ‘voluntary’ program coming from Congress needs to be very carefully watched. I promise it won’t be voluntary for long.
We must stand up and demand that Congress exit the business of monitoring and permanently storing extensive details and private communications of businesses and individuals in America.
They have played the “we can’t tell you what we know, but we need to act, act decisively, and it must be RIGHT NOW” card before. And what did we get? An 800Bn bailout that the Fed unilaterally expanded to 7 Trillion dollars–much of it to foreign corporations. We got things like Patriot Act I & II and an authorization for military force that includes every country in the world and will never end. We got things like a CIA-built network of secret torture prisons across the world that are still buzzing with activity to this very day. We got wars that most American’s don’t even know about– did you know we’re running active military campaigns in places like Somalia, the Phillippines, and Yemen?
This current drum beat– one which they are beating seemingly on a weekly basis now that they haven’t simply been handed all that they want– is about ‘cyber’ threats.
What this means– and let me be crystal clear here– this means the military wants access to, details of, and to receive copies of ALL INFORMATION about ALL NETWORKS whether public or private. They want “voluntary” information sharing about the content of those networks. EVERY SINGLE DATA POINT will be recorded, probably in the NSA’s currently under construction uber multi-billion dollar data center in the deserts of Utah, and retained indefinitely. Encryption is not a concern given the power and size of the computing machines inside. Plus, once they get even faster computers they will simply be able to go back and decrypt information at will. The result of all of this? The ultra secret intelligence agencies of the US which now operate far outside of Congressional or Presidential knowledge or control will have a complete information file about every person, every business, and every network in the US and abroad.
One doesn’t simply ‘nod’ and grant Congress approval to do something like this. We must not hand Congress a hammer and a box of nails with an accompanying instruction to nail shut the coffin containing our Constitutional Republic.