estima statement before this committee, quote, we have peer competitors in cyber space and some of them have already hinted they hold the power to cripple our infrastructure and set back our standard of living if they choose. i would like you for the record to outline which of our peer competitors might be the closest to choosing to use their power. as i have publicly said before, the russians are the peer competitor to us. but i look at other nations. you look at china, for example, the level of capability and investment they re making. i m watching their abilities rise significantly. iran, north korea currently at a moderate level. clearly the level of investment, the capability we re seeing, and their willingness to employ cyber in some very aggressive ways that would be way beyond our normal risk calculus is a concern. i think it is the general assumption that you all have said that our systems can be
competitors in cyberspace and some hinted they can crip will our infrastructure and set back our standard of living if they choose. if you can outline which of our peer competitors might be the closest to choosing to use their power. as i publicly said before the russians are the peer competitor but i look at other nations. you look at china and the level of capability and investment they re making. i m watching their abilities rise significantly. iran, north korea at a moderate level but clearly the level investment, the capability we re seeing and their willingness to employ cyber in some very aggressive ways that would be way beyond our normal risk. is of concern. i think it is the general assumption that you all have said that our systems can be
admiral rogers, have you seen this problem in your position getting worse or better? in other words, it s my information that their techniques have improved, their capabilities have improved, the degree of success has improved. is that your assessment? i have publicly said before that the russians are a peer competitor in cyber. if you look broadly beyond the russians to cyber large the level of capabilities of nation states and actors around the world continue to increase, can t think of a single significant actor out there who is either decreasing their level of investment, getting worse in their trade, craft or capability or in any way backing away from significant investments in cyber. and with all due respect to you, mr. secretary, i have not seen a policy. in other words, i don t think any of our intelligence people know what to do if there is an attack besides report it. i don t think that any of our
development of productivity. the tailwind we re going to have to deal with is the tailwind of the debt situation. it s going to require a lot of thoughtfulness calm reflective thoughtfulness exchanges of ideas, and communication really to deal with that risk well. do you think when you look out at the prospects for china, do you think it will be it will be able to compete with the united states as a peer competitor economically? right now china s richer than the united states if you take assets and liabilities, not per capita but the aggregate of that and china s growth rate will certainly be faster than the united states growth rate over the next number of years, so i think they have to go through a big restructuring, a big adjustment. the average growth rate over the last ten years in china was
especially its growing development of brand new high-tech weapons. mike emanuel is live at the pentagon. mike, we ve been waiting for this report. how do we know how this plays out in terms of how it affects us at the u.s., now that we re getting a look at china s military strength? reporter: the pentagon flat out says, shannon, that the chinese are using their economic strength and beefing up their military. what this means is when americans are buying chinese products, they re taking some of those dollars and pouring them into weapons systems. i asked one expert what this all means. i think big picture for the united states, it means that we have a peer competitor. this is a country that has made it very clear that it wants to dominate not only its region but the rest of the world. and the question is, what are we going to do in response to that report. reporter: he points out that while the war in iraq and the war in afghanistan have been counterinsurgencies, we might also nee