Are Defenses Against Cyberattacks on U.S. Critical Infrastructures Missing the Target?

When the first version of what would become the Internet became operational in the late 1970s, one of the developers revealed years later that the team never expected the user base of this new technology to exceed 10,000. Nor did they imagine that critical infrastructures like power generation would be connected to what was meant to be an open network.


How wrong on both counts.

Politics, Human Factors and Legal Issues Thwart Deployment of U.S. Cyber Defenses

Cyberattacks are increasing in sophistication. Cyber threat information is scarce, and qualified cybersecurity specialists are hard to come by. There are legal risks to cyber counterstrikes, but meanwhile companies like Wyndham are being targeted for not doing enough to protect customer data.

And all the while, skittish shareholders are getting worried.

What’s an organization attempting to prevent cyberattacks to do?

Can Metadata, PRISM and an Elite U.S. Research Agency Usher in a New Era of Predictive Cyber Defense?

If the increase in disruptive cyberattacks against U.S. computer networks or the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars of intellectual property theft is any sign, America’s cyber defenses are in dismally weak condition. And sadly, there are few signs of industry-government progress toward a solution.

Can the National Security Agency and metadata come to the rescue?

Perhaps. With a little help.

U.S. Intellectual Property Cybertheft Losses Call for Retaliatory Cyberattacks

There are two primary reasons to launch retaliatory cyberattacks – active defenses in the jargon of cyber defense – as well as reasons why not to do so.

Take a moment to review my previous post where I discussed the massive U.S. losses from intellectual property cybertheft. It leads us to the question, “Is now the time for retaliatory cyberattacks?

The answer is yes. And it has been for some time.

Is Now the Time for Retaliatory Cyberattacks?

 A new era of warfare is in full swing. And America is the target.

As documented by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, America is in a state of siege. The report singles out China as being primarily responsible for “several hundreds of billions of dollars” of intellectual property losses from U.S. private companies. Twenty-five years of research and development has been undone in what Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the U.S. Cyber Command, calls “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

And these losses do not include the incalculable losses from the theft of U.S. military plans and top secret weapons systems.