Russia fears cyber attacks

A Russian computer security expert says that terrorists could attack his country using computers to take out critical infrastructure. Valery Vasenin, who heads the Computer Security Department of the Institute for Information Security Problems in Moscow, says that terrorists may not have the capability yet, but that in future terrorists will increasingly use computers to plan and carry out their attacks.

Vasenin believes that energy infrastructure is one of the most likely candidates for a computer-borne attack, with the goal of causing widespread blackouts. The fact that Russia’s infrastructure is increasingly networked makes it more vulnerable to such attacks, he says.