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.

Gurniak’s photography will be showcased at a special exhibit at the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago opening Friday, Jan. 16.

Medill National Security Journalism Digital Fellow Nolan Peterson will speak at the event’s opening night, relating his experiences reporting from the front lines of the Ukrainian war to highlight the risks of conflict journalism and his observations from the conflict.

Viktor Gurniak.

Gurniak was a cofounder of LUFA photo agency and a frequent contributor to UNIAN, Reuters, and an online version of INSIDER. He was killed in October during an attack in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine.

He is survived by his wife and daughter.

Gurniak’s death came more than a month after a Sept. 5 truce between separatists and Kiev, highlighting the tenuous nature of the cease-fire, which has been marked by sporadic fighting.

According to United Nations estimates, more than 1,000 civilians and soldiers have died in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine since the Sept. 5 cease-fire, averaging about 13 deaths a day and comprising about a quarter of the conflict’s overall death toll.

Peterson spent nearly three months in Ukraine reporting on the war in 2014, visiting the front lines in Donetsk Oblast and Mariupol. He was in Mariupol when the cease-fire was signed.

The event —“Road from the Maidan: In memory of Viktor Gurniak –Photojournalist and Military Volunteer”— will be Friday, January 16, 2015, 7 p.m., at the Ukrainian National Museum, 2249 W. Superior St., Chicago, IL 60612.

Those interested in attending can call 312 421-8020 for more information.

Peterson spoke on four programs, beginning with a spot on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Friday afternoon, “Hannity” on Friday night, and then again on “Fox and Friends” and “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Saturday.

The interviews focused on Peterson’s firsthand experiences visiting the Muslim ghettos that have formed on the outskirts of most of France’s major cities, called the “banlieues.”

Sections of these neighborhoods have been marked as off-limits by French authorities, restricting access by police and other emergency services. Critics of these “no-go zones” say they allow safe havens for recruiters looking to fill the ranks of extremist groups such as ISIS and al Qaida with disenfranchised Muslim youth.

Peterson’s interviews came after a violent three-day stretch in Paris, during which terrorists who claimed to be operating under the orders of al Qaida and the Islamic State killed 17 civilians. The attacks began Wednesday, when two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12. The attackers chanted Islamist slogans in Arabic, and later claimed the attack was in retaliation for cartoons published by the paper that were offensive to Islam.

On Friday, a separate attack killed four French civilians at Jewish grocery store, and the Kouachi brothers were killed by French police in a shootout at a printing shop outside Paris.

All of the attackers were radicalized French citizens, highlighting concerns that the existance of the “no-go zones” might have left disenfranchised French Muslims vulnerable to the recruitment efforts of Islamist groups.

According to French government data, more than 1,000 French citizens, including about 100 women, have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight with the Islamic State.

Peterson, a former Air Force special operations pilot and a 2012 graduate of Medill’s master’s program, lived in Paris for more than two years while studying for a master’s degree at the Sorbonne. He wrote his master’s thesis on the radicalization of French Muslims.