This post comes shortly after a meeting between Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama that focused on counterterrorism and cyber security. That meeting prompted President Obama to say, “Social media and the Internet is the primary way in which these terrorism organizations are communicating.”
This theme and commitment appears to be carried through in President Obama’s proposed recent budget that showed a $1 billion increase ($14 billion proposed) in cyber over last year. Add to that the $3.4 billion increase in the ‘Black budget.’
There is good reason for the increase considering that both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) have formed cyber jihadi groups. Now add to that the recent cyber attack suffered by Sony that has been attributed to North Korea. You also have to add the cyber crime aspects of this and let’s include the data thefts from Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase and others. While we are at it, we must also include the 148 million new strains of malware released in 2014.
While these are significant challenges perhaps the greatest test we face comes from keeping up with the pace of change in connected technologies. It is clear we are at the beginning of a new technology era mainly being driven by IoT, connected cars, and wearable computing. Another significant challenge is the growing shortage of technical talent not only to defend the digital space but to create the technology infrastructure and foundation the country needs to remain globally competitive.
That provides just a glimpse into the challenges and cyber threat environment we all have to contend with. One has to wonder if the slight budget increase is enough. Consider all of the resources in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and organized crime that have been amassed and are working on advanced cyber weaponry. It would be very dangerous to believe that we are so much smarter and that the U.S. knows all that they know about cyber security and are ready for anything they can throw at us. In the best case scenario we are first among equals — and that is a stretch!
