Threat of global cyber disaster

To date, the threat of cyber terror remains an abstract concept. While several major American enterprises have been attacked, threatened and blackmailed – sometimes very publicly, for many citizens – and in the consciousness of many elected officials in Washington – the threat remains theoretical. In order to truly protect against these acts, the way we invest in fighting cyber terror has to change. All industries and education systems need to invest in the talent pipeline from the beginning and continue throughout the educational process to ensure the workforce is prepared to think analytically and critically to anticipate and prevent the cyber security breaches of tomorrow before they happen.

We have to do this now. Because the current outlook fundamentally misses the scale of the potential threat. What we’re facing is a world – our world – without consistent access to food, to power, to clean water. Where infrastructure disintegrates and many of the pillars of our society crumble. The right criminals at the right time can easily set our society back 200 years, and this sentiment is captured by the Department of Homeland security; part of its creed validates that “Our daily life, economic vitality and national security depend on a stable, safe and resilient cyberspace.” That is the real impact of cyber terror.

{mosads}This isn’t your father’s war with a known enemy and equal rules of engagement. It’s also not a war that is pending. It’s already here. Every hour of every day, this war is waged — not with guns and bullets, but with sophisticated equipment and almost unfathomable skills. And the war is well funded through government sponsored terror, organized cyber-crime and curious individuals who have the desire to see how far they can push. 

The Titan Reign attacks on NASA and Lockheed Martin were coordinated to allow continued access by hackers to national intelligence materials. The Moonlight Maze data breach gave cyber attackers access to military maps, schematics, troop movements and Department of Energy documents and took place over nearly a two-year period. The attack that led to the data breach at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in 2014 involved records of 76 million U.S. Households and 7 million small businesses. While these were large and involved high-profile companies and military entities, these are only a few of the attacks that have taken place over the last few years.

Recently, U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper testified before the United States Senate Armed Services Committee about the sheer volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, telling the Committee they are “increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication and severity of impact.” And Director Clapper is right when he says “we’ve been living with a constant and expanding barrage of cyber attacks for some time. This insidious trend, I believe, will continue.”

This isn’t isolated to a geography or ideology. The daily, hourly and minute-by-minute attack of the machines is designed to cripple not just American competitiveness, but our very way and quality of life. This is creating massive security risks, and through a persistent set of attacks on companies, individuals and branches of the United States government putting all Americans at great physical and financial risk. We all need to take action by going to the source of the only solution: a talented, tech-savvy workforce able to match the depth and scope of the threat with their talent.

The issue is particularly relevant given last week’s STEMconnector event, where six government agencies and 60 companies gathered at the National Press Club to discuss STEM education on security risks and the national need for workforce solutions.

As a nation, we must work in a bipartisan way with Congress and the White House to recognize and invest in new education programs like boot camps and certificates targeted to create a workforce that can ward off cyber attacks, spot risks and keep Americans safe. Today, we don’t have the workforce to keep us safe and aren’t properly training and preparing the workforce we will need to reduce the threat of global cyber-attacks. This is a recipe for catastrophic failure. 

There are bipartisan bills to responsibly promote expansion of competency-based learning that should become law. Working towards a system that provides higher education programs with the right accountability for access to federal funding would help institutions create programs and certifications to train individuals for occupations in the field of cyber security.

According to Peninsula Press, a product of Stanford University Journalism, recently studied data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that more than 209,000 cyber security jobs are unfilled. Postings are up 74 percent over the last five years. Additionally, it takes more time to fill these positions – 36 percent longer than all job postings and 24 percent longer than all information technology job postings, according to Burning Glass.  d

It’s a fascinating new way – and a vital one – of looking at our nation’s skills gap. It’s no longer an educational attainment issue or a competitive threat – it’s a homeland security imperative. And Washington needs to address the shortage.

Recently, Matt Leob, CEO of ISACA, a global IT association serving 115,000 cyber security, risk and audit professionals wrote about the cyber security skills shortage. He’s right when he says “Near-term, business, government and the nonprofit community should work together to retrain existing experts in IT who display an interest in transitioning their careers.” We want to reiterate this need and focus on the higher education component to provide the solution.

In the private sector, companies like ours are already working across industries and through public and private partnerships and through different sectors. This fight needs policy makers, educators and the private sector to work together to identify and train individuals – at scale – for the growing field of cyber security.

This is a new frontier. And like all paradigm shifts, Washington’s consciousness needs to catch up to the reality on the ground and over the wire. Cyber security is a threat that affects us all. Let’s work together to address it.

Brenner is chief of staff at Apollo Education Group.