276 CHAPTER 14 What's Next? Mike McConnell, who recently retired as the chief of national intelligence and oversaw the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ­ www.cia.gov), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA ­ www.dia.mil), and National Security Agency (NSA ­ www.nsa.gov) did an interview with Steve Kroft of CBS News (www.cbsnews. com) and discussed the possibility of a cyber attack against the United States' cri- tical infrastructure. 29 In the interview, McConnell states that if he wanted to inflict significant damage to the United States, he would attack the electric grid on either coast and attempt to propagate the attack throughout the country's electric grid to cause widespread power outages. 29 More importantly though, McConnell believes that militaries and organized crimes across the world have the ability of perform- ing this type of an attack against the electric grid. 29 A cyber attack that cripples the country is commonly referred to as a Cyber Pearl Harbor, and McConnell is not the only person who believes that a Cyber Pearl Harbor attack will involve the electric grid. Many security professionals have voiced their concern over the security of the smart grid and the inherent risk with making the electric grid more accessible. Instead of launching missiles and executing surgical strikes with special operations forces, the next war could be initiated with a cyber attack to destroy a nation's critical infrastructure.