Checkpoint: Are there areas of U.S. infrastructure that you see as particularly vulnerable to cyber attack?

Langner: Well, I would say almost all areas of critical infrastructure are vulnerable to cyber attack – not only in the United States but also in Europe, for example. Unfortunately, we have been discussing critical infrastructure protection against cyber attack for over a decade now and we haven’t made any significant progress.

Checkpoint: Why do you think that is?

Langner: Just out of complacency. You could say, we need another cyber attack for people to actually wake up. For a security expert like me, this is just nuts. This drives me crazy – that people are actually waiting for something to happen rather than working on the existing and proven vulnerabilities.

We don’t want to just sit and wait until someone exploits your existing vulnerabilities.