. >> mike mcconnell: can you imagine your life without electric power?ruary of this year, retired admiral mike mcconnell was the nation's top spy. as chief of national intelligence he oversaw the central intelligence agency, the defense intelligence agency and the national security agency. few people know as much about cyber warfare and our dependency on the power grid and the computer networks that deliver our oil and gas, pump and purify our water, keep track of our money and operate our transportation systems. >> mcconnell: if i were an attacker and i wanted to do strategic damage to the united states, i would either take the cold of winter or the heat of summer. i probably would sack electric power on the u.s. east cost, maybe the west coast, and attempt to cause a cascading effect. all of those things are in the art of the possible from a sophisticated attacker. >> kroft: do you believe our adversaries have the capability of bringing down a power grid? >> mcconnell: i do. >> kroft: is the u.s. prepared for such an attack? >> mcconnell: no, the unite

the director of national intelligence, mike mcconnell, former director of the national security agency, the largest intelligence agency, had a meeting with president bush and white house where he asked authorization for the president to use what he called information warfare against insurgents in iraq and the war fighters who were scoring dramatic victories with the improvised explosive devices. the key here is manning were using cell phones and computers to coordinate and plan their attacks and in many cases have been posting video of the attacks did internet which they could use as a recruitment vehicle, which has a demoralizing fact, i think even at home as well. what he wanted to do is get the president's fourth organization that allowed his old agency to launch what is called a computer network attack on the devices being used by those insurgents and a fighter groups in iraq. according people i talked to about this, including people in the room when he made the request, and allow our intelligence agencies to get inside the system and have given them the capabilities of the when so

the director of national intelligence, mike mcconnell, former director of the national security agency, the largest intelligence agency, had a meeting with president bush and white house where he asked authorization for the president to use what he called information warfare against insurgents in iraq and the war fighters who were scoring dramatic victories with the improvised explosive devices. the key here is manning were using cell phones and computers to coordinate and plan their attacks and in many cases have been posting video of the attacks did internet which they could use as a recruitment vehicle, which has a demoralizing fact, i think even at home as well. what he wanted to do is get the president's fourth organization that allowed his old agency to launch what is called a computer network attack on the devices being used by those insurgents and a fighter groups in iraq. according people i talked to about this, including people in the room when he made the request, and allow our intelligence agencies to get inside the system and have given them the capabilities of the when so