Former Black Hat hacker warns cyberattacks against US will get ‘exponentially worse and worse'

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Former Black Hat hacker on cyber attacks says US ‘needs outside help’ with cyber security

Co-founder of the hacking group LulzSec Hector Xavier Monsegur on cyberattacks being on the rise under Biden administration.

Co-founder of the hacking group LulzSec Hector Xavier Monsegur on Saturday warned that cyberattacks against U.S. infrastructure are going to get "worse exponentially."

"We do not have enough people to deal with the threats, we don't have enough law enforcement that actually understands cyber and all of the organizations that I've worked with around the nation and we see in the news all the time, you know, still haven't reached a certain threshold in their security posture," Monsegur told "Watters World." 

"So we're going to continue to see these attacks; this happens every day. And it’s going to get worse and worse, it will be exponential."

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Monsegur asserted that the U.S. can't rely solely on federal contractors to combat cybersecurity. He explained further that the U.S. relies on the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency.

"Well, we do have CISA and there’s other organizations around there. We do have the computer emergency response teams and all sorts of organizations," Monsegur said.

"The thing is that we kind of need to work together. I think that for a long time, the U.S. government has relied heavily on federal contractors, which I have no problem with for the most part. I think they've improved over the years, but we still need more outside help, that's for sure."

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The Senate confirmed Chris Inglis as the first White House cybersecurity director on Thursday, on the heels of President Biden’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and sharp concerns over a recent spate of cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure. 

Inglis will serve as head of the new Office of the National Cyber Director, an agency created through the most recent National Defense Authorization Act. Biden has proposed a budget of $15 million for the office, though the budget has not been approved by Congress. 

Cyberattacks are on the rise, and they’re increasingly targeting major infrastructure installations, like transportation hubs, energy facilities and utility companies.

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Last month, Biden signed an executive order to bolster cyberdefenses and has been under pressure to respond in kind to cyberattacks, especially those linked to Russia, China, North Korea or Iran. 

In response to recent cyber attacks linked to Russia, Biden on Wednesday said he gave Putin a list of 16 critical infrastructure entities that are "off-limits" to cyberattacks.