NSJI Director of Education and Outreach Josh Meyer was featured on a HuffPost Live panel discussion on cybersecurity Wednesday.
Meyer, who is also the McCormick lecturer in national security studies, joined two other security experts to discuss cyber threats and President Obama’s proposed cybersecurity legislation, which was unveiled Jan. 13 and presented at the State of the Union Tuesday.
Wednesday’s program, which aired on HUFFPOST LIVE, focused on how the growing interconnectedness of digital technology has opened new avenues for terrorists to attack U.S. interests and citizens.
One key question was how far the U.S. government should go to protect private corporations from cyber threats.
“It’s really tricky. This is a really tough issue. What is the government’s responsibility to these organizations?” Meyer said. “Does the U.S. government have the responsibility to come to the defense of multinational corporations like Sony if they’ve been hacked?”
The panelists also addressed privacy concerns due to the role of federal agencies like the FBI and NSA in shoring up private corporations’ cyber defenses.
“In order for corporations to be better protected they need get help and that raises privacy concerns,” said panelist Heather Roff, visiting associate professor of security studies, University of Denver.
“A lot of these corporations are employing private security firms,” Meyer added. “They’re not waiting for the government to protect them, they’re trying to do it on their own.”
Recent cyber attacks like the hack of Sony Pictures spurred Obama to unveil details of his proposed cybersecurity legislation Jan. 13. Underscoring the threat, hackers claiming to represent ISIS took over Central Command’s (CENTCOM) Twitter account the same day.
The more prevalent role of technology in daily life and the interconnectedness of devices increases the vulnerability of U.S. interests and citizens to cyber attacks, Wednesday’s panelists argued.
“[There will be] 50 billion interconnected devices by 2020,” said Patrick Tucker, Defense One technology editor. “We like the convenience. We want to walk into an environment where most of our needs are anticipated in advance.”
“With more devices you have more opportunities for hacking those devices,” Roff said.
Meyer added that cyber attacks can cause as much real-world damage and loss of life as conventional terrorist strikes—possibly even more.
“Because you have all these interconnected devices, now you have the very real possibility of some really serious terrorists attacks happening,” Meyer said. “And I don’t mean hacking into your nest thermostat and raising the heat in your house. I’m talking about GPS satellites that control everything, including fly-by-wire planes, missiles and so forth. And if you hack into those kind of satellites, or hack into the electrical grid or a fleet of self driving cars, terrorists now have the capacity of doing some really, really cataclysmic damage that they weren’t really capable of doing before with conventional attacks.”
→ Read Meyer’s recent article for VICE , “The Future of Terrorism According to VICE”
→ Read about “Human Rights in the Digital Age,” a Northwestern University human rights conference featuring Meyer as a panelist.
