DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn was asked by Sen. Richard Burr about the growing cyber threat of non-state actors during today's Worldwide Threat Assessment Hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
SEN RICHARD BURR, R-NORTH CAROLINA: “General Flynn, when I saw one of my colleagues ask about cyber security it seemed like you had something you wanted to contribute to that. Let me give you this opportunity because I think you are in a unique position to comment on it.”
LT GEN FLYNN: “Well I would just offer on cyber security one of the other aspects. Director Clapper mentioned state actors. I think that what is a serious threat that we are paying very close attention to are these non-nation state groups and actors, al-Qaeda being among them as one organization among many. Others are what I would just describe as the transnational organized criminal elements that are also operating in the cyber domain and they have no rules that they have to adhere to and they are increasingly adapting to an environment that is actually benefiting them. I think that while we definitely need to pay attention to those nation states that, in some cases, have parity with us we have to also pay very close attention to the non-nation state actors that are out there that are doing things that we see that have already been described here today. That to me is an increasingly growing threat.”