American banks are set to face "the cyber equivalent of the World Trade Center attack," and the recent attacks on financial institutions should be a wake-up call to lawmakers and industry leaders, says John "Mike" McConnell, a former National Security Agency director. He envisions an attack in which "the power doesn't work, there's no way you can get money, you can't get out of town, you can't get online, and banking, as a function to make the world work, starts to not be reliable."