VOL. 126 | NO. 212 | Monday, October 31, 2011
By Andy Meek
Updated 3:11PMAnyone reading this article via the Internet is part of a crowd that?s 2.5 billion strong. That?s how many people are currently connected to the ?Net, according to cybersecurity authority Melissa Hathaway, who was in town Thursday to share with the Economic Club of Memphis her warnings about how fragile the world?s digital infrastructure is.
Famed bank robber Willie Sutton is said to have dryly noted that he robbed banks because that?s where the money is. Hathaway?s comments boiled down to the tech version of that idea: Cybercriminals are flocking to the Web, because that?s where the opportunity ? and often unsuspecting victims ? are.
?The largest problem is awareness,? said Hathaway, the president of Hathaway Global Strategies LLC who shares advice with the U.S. government, Interpol and other government agencies around the world. ?People don?t understand what the vulnerabilities might be.?
She piqued the audience?s interest early with the surprising statistic about how often people are clicking ?send? on digital correspondence. Of the 100 trillion emails last year, she pegged 89 percent as spam.
That?s a lot of clutter ? and potentially harmful, invasive and data-grabbing material ? floating through the Internet?s pipeline.
While she said that cybersecurity as an issue has gained international prominence over the last few years ? especially with a string of recent data breaches at entities like Citigroup, Sony, Epsilon and others ? she said there?s still a long way to go. And that the stakes are too high to leave that gap unaddressed.
For example, she said the energy industry is poised in her opinion to begin experiencing fraud like never before. That?s because of the increasing frequency with which energy companies are digitizing much of the customer experience like payment systems and with accounts that can be accessed via smart phones.
Hathaway was the Cyber Coordination Executive and Director of the Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during the last two years of the administration of President George W. Bush. From February to August 2009, she was the acting Senior Director for Cyberspace in the National Security Council for the administration of President Barack Obama.
In May 2009, Obama presented his blueprint of the Cyberspace Policy Review, and Hathaway then helped invigorate the Cybersecurity Office within the administration?s national security staff to begin the work called for in that blueprint.
At the end of her government service, Hathaway got the National Intelligence Reform medal in honor of her achievements.
Concerns about Internet and computer security pervade even her personal life. Hathaway said she has two children who are in the fifth and sixth grade. One of her children is required to bring a thumb drive to and from school.
?My network at home is secure, but I can?t be sure the school has a clean network,? she said.
Source: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2011/oct/31/cybersecurity-importance-grows/
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