AC blog 2

Blog #2: Panel Offers Ways to Bolster Cyberspace Security

A recent article from the New York Times, titled “Panel Offers to Bolster Cyberspace Security,” comments on the important issue of legal regulation with regards to cyber-space security. A government and technology industry panel has called for a serious change in the way that the federal government enforces this security. The panel believes that a simple use of passwords when trying to protect confidential information is a serious security breach. They suggest that the government switch to “strong authentication,” which could prevent hackers from tapping into their systems. Such a transition would most likely require all government computer users to use a physical device instead of simply typing in a password. Although this may be more expensive and maybe a hassle for the users, it may be necessary in order to keep our government’s information secure. Nobody ever said internet security would come easy.
One of the members of the panel, stated that, “we need to move away from passwords,” because in reality “the laissez-faire approach to cyber-security has failed.” This new policy for cyber-space security could eventually be adapted by the Obama administration in an attempt to make the internet safer for the future. The significance of the security breaches in our cyber-systems cannot be overlooked. There is an infinite amount of confidential information throughout the internet that can be used maliciously if it were to fall into the wrong hands. Therefore, not only the government should be worried, but especially private industries whose financial information of the company and clients can be accessed with sufficient hacking skills.
In the past year, the Department of Defense, State, Homeland Security, and Commerce, NASA, and the National Defense University, were among the important agencies in our country that “suffered major intrusions by unknown foreign entities.” For example, the Secretary of State’s email was hacked into, and “terabytes” of data magically went missing from the State Department. The fact that people are able to gain access to such important information is definitely unsettling. The panel suggests that information technology officers and CIO’s are no longer enough to ensure the best cyber-security and that cyber-security is one of the most significant national security threats. If people are able to hack into the systems that carry information which our country operates and defends itself on, then it is only a matter of time before it comes back to haunt us. We need to take the necessary measures in order to secure our cyberspace. New laws and regulations have been proposed in order to govern cyberspace and I believe that if used correctly, these will help to prevent future intrusions on our government systems. Cyberspace is a dangerous place and without some sort of regulation, confidentiality may no longer exist there.