By Greg Oslan

Recently, attacks on our government and corporate infrastructure have been occurring with more regularity, compromising corporate, personal, and classified information. No longer is the task of cybersecurity relegated to IT offices and CIOs in the private sector, nor to a select number of government agencies. Instead, a call to action has been put forth to all entities—especially the government—to make cybersecurity a top priority. It is now recognized as one of the most important national security challenges of our time.

The U.S. government is taking notice, albeit after large-scale attacks in recent years. For example, in August 2007 the United States suffered a wave of cyber attacks, inflicting damage to U.S. national and economic security. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Commerce; NASA; and National Defense University all suffered major intrusions by unknown foreign entities¹.

More recently, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer remarked in March 2010 that government computers are attacked an average of 1.8 billion times a month, and the Senate Security Operations Center alone receives 13.9 million cyber attacks a day.

Add to this that senior representatives from the intelligence community have conclusive evidence that U.S. companies have lost billions in intellectual property², and one can safely conclude that ineffective cybersecurity undermines our nation’s strength and puts the United States at risk. Undoubtedly, the United States’ power, status, and security in the world depend largely on its economic strength; yet, not prioritizing cybersecurity could put this position in jeopardy.

The United States must ask itself some difficult questions:

• Are we prepared to risk an economic disaster because individual hackers, organized crime, or nation states have infiltrated our virtual infrastructure?

Clearly the issue of cybersecurity must be viewed as a multi-dimensional problem. We are taking our first steps, as exemplified by the launch of the new U.S. Cyber Command under General Keith Alexander, to supplement those activities conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence communities. As a nation, we must continue to take specific steps to address this mounting problem. Specifically:

• Leverage the technology expertise of government organizations along with the private sector, and encourage open information sharing between the two.
• Build international relations to help curtail cyber threats