FBI chief: Terrorists plotting cyberattacks against the United States

Terrorist groups have begun plotting ways to hit the U.S. with cyberattacks, FBI Director James Comey told an audience in Colorado on Wednesday night.

“We are picking up signs of increasing interest,” he said during a speech at the Aspen Security Forum, The Wall Street Journal reported. “It’s a small but potentially growing problem.”

{mosads}Comey did not explain exactly what types of digital assaults extremist groups are discussing.

But government officials have long warned that cyberattacks could take out a power grid, destroy the banking system or damage a nuclear power plant.

Comey said terrorist groups struggling to recruit followers in the U.S. are increasingly turning to cyberattacks as an option.

To that point, hackers claiming an affiliation with Islamic extremist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have only succeeded in low-level hacks, such as blocking websites or taking over social media accounts.

In February, the a group calling itself the “Cyber Caliphate” infiltrated the Twitter and YouTube accounts for the U.S. Cyber Command, sending out propaganda messages.

One month later, hackers affiliated with ISIS posted the personal details of 100 U.S. military personnel supposedly involved in attacks on the terrorist group.

In April, an ISIS sympathizer was tied to a digital attack that took a French TV station off the air, the first time ISIS-affiliated hackers had successfully breached a TV station.

But governments and organized cyber crime rings are believed to be behind most of the major cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies and major retailers, banks and insurers.

Experts publicly, and government officials privately, have accused China of orchestrating the recent digital assault on the Office of Personnel Management that exposed more than 22 million people’s information.

Comey declined to blame China during his remarks, but the bureau director indicated the government knows who is behind the attacks. He wouldn’t reveal any more.

“I could but I’m not going to,” he said.