US cybersecurity response 'hampered by Edward Snowden'
Whistle-blower's revelations have led to even more attacks, according to officials
Several initiatives by the US government regarding cybersecurity have been stopped cold or set back after the Edward Snowden affair broke, leaving the country struggling to respond to the daily onslaught of attacks from Russia, China and elsewhere, according to lawmakers.
US officials rank its cybervulnerability as a greater threat to national security than terrorism.
Snowden "has slowed everything down", said Congressman Mike Pompeo, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, referring to the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of the agency's mass surveillance.
"All the things the NSA wanted to do are now radioactive, even though they were good ideas," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
The Obama administration has said it plans to release this year a list of voluntary best practices in cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, including electric utilities and chemical plants.
But President Barack Obama's warnings last summer to Chinese President Xi Jinping to halt what US officials describe as state-sponsored hacking of US corporations have mostly gone unheeded.