AUSTIN, Texas — Tensions with Russia continue as U.S. intelligence officials say meddling is still happening in the 2018 election cycle. They worry cyber attackers are getting more brazen.

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats was the keynote speaker for a conference at the University of Texas at Austin Thursday titled "U.S. Intelligence: Confronting 21st Century Challenges." Coats said meddling by foreign foes—namely Russia, Iran and North Korea—has his agency's attention.

"All of the warning signals are there; they have been there and are increasing," he said.

In his Annual Threat Assessment published Feb. 13, Coats said a growing number of countries are gaining the ability to wage cyberattacks.

MORE | Annual Worldwide Threat Assessment

"We assess that concerns about U.S. retaliation and still developing adversary capabilities will mitigate the probability of attacks aimed at causing major disruptions of U.S. critical infrastructure, but we remain concerned by the increasingly damaging effects of cyber operations and the apparent acceptance by adversaries of collateral damage," he wrote in the report.

Coats highlighted attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia by foreign adversaries.

"The risk is growing that some adversaries will conduct cyberattacks—such as data deletion or localized and temporary disruptions of critical infrastructure—against the United States in a crisis short of war," Coats wrote.

When asked at the conference if the United States faces the cyber equivalent of 9-11, Coats said not yet. However, he said an attack of that magnitude is not out of the question.

"My worry is we will have a cyber-11 that might equate to something or succeed with something like that," he said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, joined Coats at the conference. He said the U.S. needs to develop an immediate, but measured, response when it comes to those attacks. Cornyn said that includes addressing foreign election meddling on social media.

"We don't want to operate it like a utility, I believe, because we will lose the benefits that we have enjoyed and that we've seen created spontaneously," Cornyn said. "We need to come up with a coherent national strategy--an all of government approach--to deal with it."

Cornyn said cyber security will be a top priority for Congress in the coming months--especially in light of the recent cyberattacks on infrastructure in Baltimore and Atlanta, as well as the recent revelations of data mining through social media platforms like Facebook.