Surviving a cyberwar depends on the target, experts say

There is no debate in the security community that the nation needs to protect its critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. But not everybody agrees that all infrastructure sectors are equally critical.

According to the most recent Presidential Policy Directive on cyber security, the U.S. has 16 critical infrastructure (CI) sectors, ranging from transportation to energy, food, water, financial services, and others.

But Mark Sparkman, a former CIA officer and now a senior international affairs analyst with the RAND Corporation, argued in a recent post on CNN that "cyber Armageddon" scenarios focused on physical infrastructure are overblown. Major sections of the U.S., he noted, have gone without electricity and water for days or weeks following natural disasters, and life has returned to normal. However, that, he said, would not be the case with finance.