No hard evidence exists that shows a cyberterrorism attack on the U.S., but when such an attack comes, it is likely to be much more harmful than the current crop of relatively unsophisticated viruses and worms that have caused billions of dollars in damages, a cybersecurity expert said Monday.

Terrorism groups have planned cyberterrorism attacks for years, and those attacks are waiting for a vulnerability to trigger them, predicted Norm Laudermilch, vice president of managed security services for VeriSign Inc.

"Anybody think we're dealing with dumb terrorists?" Laudermilch asked a crowd during a seminar on cyberterrorism at Computer Security Institute's Computer Security Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C. "We're not going to have a month to patch our systems, because the plan is going to be already in place."

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