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White House turns attention to cybersecurity
Cybersecurity has quickly become a matter of national security in the United States. In recent months, entities within both the public and private sector have experienced penetrating data breaches. While most of the damage inflicted by these campaigns has been largely contained, the potential for a catastrophic cyberattack looms. The motivations and suspects for these crimes are numerous. The United States' vast wealth of financial and classified state information is a highly desirable target for both domestic, greed-driven thieves and their foreign nationalist counterparts. Recognizing the threat presented by cybercriminals, the White House recently unveiled a plan to protect American-held trade and state secrets.
ABC News reported that the White House's announced strategy focused on efforts to improve cooperation among security experts to increase cyberattack defenses across American trade sectors. In addition, the plan called for members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities to ensure current laws protecting against cyberattacks were effective. The announcement occurred approximately one week after President Obama issued an executive order requesting federal agencies to share state-held information on potential cyberthreats with private companies contracted to work on the nation's infrastructure.
"The theft of trade secrets impacts national security, undermines our global competitiveness, diminishes U.S. exports process and puts American jobs at risk," U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel said at a White House meeting.
The proposed plan did not mention the threat posed by Chinese nationals, who have been cited by security firms as being responsible for major data breaches within the United States. According to a report issued by Mandiant, one unit within China's Red Army has stolen massive amounts of data from 115 American targets since 2006. One way for businesses to defend their networks is by applying encryption techniques. Encrypting data transfers can facilitate efforts to protect sensitive information, particularly for industries where online transactions are common, such as banking and ecommerce.
The threat of cyberattacks grows each day. Encrypt your data transactions with an SSL certificate today.
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