Technology is a crucial tool in the fight against terror, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff told a Silicon Valley audience Thursday. "There is no element more important than technology [to our safety]."

In line with his assertions, Chertoff said the Administration is asking Congress to approve the new position of Assistant Secretary for Cyber and Telecommunications Security.

Chertoff said the new Assistant Secretary will play an integral role in working with technology companies to improve the safety of the country's infrastructure. As one example, Chertoff said, "We have to unleash private industry to help improve our border security."

The security chief said a nuclear attack on this country would be "uniquely damaging." He said President Bush supports a "reverse Manhattan project for the 21st century" designed to invest in nuclear detection technology.

Chertoff made prevention and early proactive detection of terrorist threats a recurring theme in his remarks in front of the public affairs group the Commonwealth Club, which was sponsored by software security provider Symantec (Quote, Chart). "We can't be lulled into complacency," he said. "Terrorists are driven by evil ideology and they are mutating new ways to attack."

On the subject of cyber crime versus cyber terror, Chertoff said it was hard to draw a distinction because the results can be just as deadly. "Even if tomorrow we got all Al Queida, we'd still have to about some 16 year-old in bad mood or in a competition that decides he wants to attack our systems. Technology gives enormous leverage to bad actors who can do what in the old days you'd need an army to do."