Not coincidentally, the chairman and ranking Republican member of the committee are sponsors of the Cybersecurity Act, which is currently stalled in the Senate as a result of Republican opposition.
The Al Qaeda video calls for cyberattacks against the networks of both the US government and critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, and compares vulnerabilities in US critical networks to the vulnerabilities in the US aviation system prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, the committee said in a statement.
The video was obtained by the FBI last year through open sources. But the section on Al Qaeda’s interest in committing cyberattacks on the US only recently gained broader circulation within the administration, the committee explained.
“This is the clearest evidence we’ve seen that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups want to attack the cyber systems of our critical infrastructure”, said the committee's chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
“This video is troubling as it urges Al Qaeda adherents to launch a cyber attack on America”, added the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.). “It’s clear that Al Qaeda is exploring all means to do us harm and this is evidence that our critical infrastructure is a target.”