FBI director: Cybercriminals are the new enemy

• Threat of 9/11-style terror attacks significantly lower now%2C security officials say
• Identifying home-grown extremists is a major challenge
• Terror chief says al-Qaeda no longer what it was

WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that cyberattacks are increasingly representing the most serious threats to homeland security and in the next decade will likely eclipse the risk posed by traditional international terror organizations.

Testifying with top officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center, Comey told a Senate committee that the cyberrisk is a multi-layered threat posed by thieves, hackers and others who are able to travel the world via the Internet at the "speed of light.''

"'There are no safe neighborhoods,'' Comey said.

At the same time, Comey, acting-DHS Secretary Rand Beers and National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen said the threat of a 9/11-style attack is significantly lower.

Beers said a large-scale attack is more likely to be launched overseas. However, he said national security officials are working to identify self-radicalized operatives or so-called lone wolves who may be planning attacks.

"The challenge of the home-grown violent extremist is that (the person) really doesn't hit all the trip wires,'' Olsen said.

While often inspired by groups like al-Qaeda, these operatives aren't often formally affiliated with terror organizations.

The core of al-Qaeda, meanwhile, is "a shadow'' of the organization once led by Osama bin Laden, killed in 2011 in a U.S. raid on his Pakistani hideout, Olsen said.

Still, Olsen said the group has spawned affiliate groups, including those in Yemen and in Iraq.

"Al-Qaeda in Iraq is at its strongest point since its peak in 2006 and this year has significantly increased its pace of attacks,'' Olsen said in written testimony submitted to the panel. "The group is exploiting increasingly permissive security environments in Iraq and Syria to fundraise, plan and train for attacks.''

On a separate matter, Comey also waded into the politically-charged debate over the 2012 deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Comey told the panel that he had no objection' to allowing members of Congress access to survivors of the assault, which resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The FBI director's comment appeared to come as a surprise to some, including Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in wake of the Obama administration's past position that such access could jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation.

Comey said he had not consulted with other Justice Department officials on the matter.