The Islamic State and other terrorist groups have communicated that they are seeking the ability to launch cyberattacks against U.S. government and civilian targets. There are mixed sentiments among top U.S. security officials about whether or not they will be capable of a catastrophic cyber attack in the near future.

Should businesses and security companies dedicate effort and attention to this topic at this point? Is this a viable threat to businesses and critical infrastructure of the US?  Are terrorist inspired cyberattacks eventually going to be of the same significance and risk as the state-sponsored attacks from China, Iran and North Korea? According to Politco, in September, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told Congress that the danger of a catastrophic attack from any cyber adversary was “remote.” However, FBI Director James Comey stated that “I see them already starting to explore things that are concerning, critical infrastructure, things like that. The logic of it tells me it's coming, and so of course I'm worried about it.”

These are important questions to consider as the terrorist threat continues to grow. This survey of attendees at the 2016 annual RSA conference will provide insight into the current sentiment on this topic. The statistics are gathered from both security vendors and customers that protect our nation’s and business’s infrastructure.