NSA chief warns America not ready for impending cyberattacks

The National Security Agency chief has reportedly warned that 'cyberattacks are coming but America is not ready for them'.

Gen. Keith Alexander said that the nation needed an agency like the NSA with its technical capabilities to help ensure that they could evolve to that future space where they need to be.

According to the Washington Times, the spy chief further told the Congress that they have to get on with cyber legislation, as the technology was changing so rapidly that the old policy and laws were lagging behind it.

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, echoed Alexander's statements, saying that they had been kicking around the cybersecurity legislation for several years.

Sen. Angus King, Maine independent, said that if they have an attack in two or three months from now and they haven't done anything, they're going to look pretty dumb around here.

King further said that the next Pearl Harbor is going to be cyber and he hoped that they were going to be better prepared than they were in 1941.

The report said that the cybersecurity debate takes place in the wake of an Iranian attack on the Navy's largest unclassified computer network that compromised 800,000 users at 2,500 locations.