U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen painted a daunting picture of the global digital landscape in a speech Wednesday, describing “a worldwide outbreak of cyber attacks and cyber vulnerabilities” that had moved from the “epidemic” to the “pandemic” stage. “Cyber attacks, in terms of their breadth and scope and possible consequences, now exceed the risk of physical attacks,” Nielsen said. “Cyberspace is now the most active battlefield, and the attack surface extends into every single American home,” she continued. Nielsen also pointed to a growing hacking arsenal available to foreign governments. “Now more than 30 nation-states have cyberattack capabilities, and sophisticated digital toolkits are spreading like wildfire,” she said. As evidence, Nielsen cited the “destructive code” that Russian and North Korean hackers released last year, an apparent reference to the NotPetya and WannaCry attacks U.S. officials attributed those two countries. CyberScoop.