Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III believes the U.S. is facing a new generation of “disruptive” cyber attacks.
“The cyber threat is moving up the ladder from exploitation to disruption,” Lynnn explained in comments quoted by the DoD’s official website.
“[True], we have not seen much destruction in terms of cyber threats, but we will.”
![](https://images.assettype.com/tgdaily/2016-09/70536b3b-708b-4754-9234-7337e9cf768b/usairforcecyber.png)
According to Lynn, cyber warfare capabilities are currently in the hands hands of “sophisticated” countries, but could shift to rogue states and terrorist organizations in the future.
“We have a window at this point where the most malicious threats haven’t been joined with the most malicious actors, but that will happen.
“[So we need to establish defenses that will] prevent [such a] union from having an effect on the security and the economy of this country.”
The deputy defense secretary also emphasized that protecting military and commercial networks would require the high-levels of cooperation amongst government agencies and the private sector.
“That cross-fertilization is critical. We are not going to solve this problem as a government-only problem, [and] private industry is not going to be able to solve it alone,” he added.