Obama Fears China, Russia Approaching US Cyber Capabilities

The abilities of China and Russia to operate in cyberspace are getting close to the US capacity in the cyber domain, President Barack Obama said at a quarterly meeting of CEOs from top US companies on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On September 8, the US Army announced that it sought to expand its cyber capabilities in response to new threats in the cyber domain.

"Although the Chinese and Russians are close, we are still the best at this," Obama said at the Business Roundtable. "And if we want to go on the offense, a whole bunch of countries would have some significant problems."

Obama noted, however, that the United States would not want to see the Internet weaponized.

"Among states, there has to be a [cyber] framework that is analogous to what we have done with nuclear power," he added.

The US Department of Defense has previously stated that countering cyber threats is a top national security priority for the United States.