Monday, August 2, 2010

Cyber threats to national security

Cybersecurity has increasingly become a national security priority over the past decade, according to a report by CACI and the U. S. Naval Institute (USNI). Cyber threats may be perpetrated with little cost and few resources. Cyber attacks are typically anonymous, launched from any of billions of sources worldwide. Impacts may be immediate and obvious, or elude recognition for years.

U.S. supply chains have historically been protected from threat because they were generally internal to North America, the report adds. This is no longer true in the cyber age. The vast majority of U.S. supply chains rely on information technologies that can be compromised at any time.

Global partners and worldwide connectivity increase the risk. The responsibility to protect U.S. cyber assets must be shared among the government, the private sector, and every private citizen.

CACI Chairman of the Board Dr. J.P. (Jack) London said, "The CACI-USNI report, Cyber Threats to National Security: Countering Challenges to the Global Supply Chain, captures the thinking of today’s leaders and experts in national security. It recommends strongly that the U.S. aggressively pursue supply chain security as part of a comprehensive cybersecurity policy."

USNI CEO Major General Tom Wilkerson said: "The recent WikiLeaks controversy should serve as a flare that warns us of how vulnerable we are to cyber threats. When a low-level analyst can easily access thousands of classified documents and instantly make them available to an international audience, it shows that our security is disturbingly inadequate. We must be diligent in identifying where and how we are susceptible to all types of cyber attacks and prevent more intrusions."

(Source-Cyber threats to national security)

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