The Global Cyberattack Challenge

The latest global cyberattack — using NSA cyber-weapons — has raised the stakes. We’ll look at real vulnerability and defense.

Are we naked now against massive cyberattack? Last week’s global cyber rumble suggests maybe so. Thousands of global targets in 65 countries. Hospitals, Chernobyl, government agencies, shipping lines, a drug giant. Ukraine specifically. By cyber weapons stolen from our own NSA, run amuck. Warnings of a cyber Pearl Harbor are back on the table. This hour On Point: Our real cyber vulnerability now. Plus, President Trump’s latest Twitter rampage on the press. -- Tom Ashbrook

Nicole Perlroth, cybersecurity reporter for the New York Times. Author of the forthcoming, "This is How They Tell Me The World Ends," which details the underground market for cyberweapons. (@nicoleperlroth)

John Carlin, former assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division. Chair of Morrison & Foerster's global risk and crisis management team, advising industry-leading organizations in sensitive cyber matters.

CNBC: We're facing a global epidemic of cyberattacks, cybersecurity expert warns — "The latest global cyberattack is a reminder that the era of cyber insecurity is here, expert John Carlin told CNBC on Tuesday. Hackers hit companies and government officials across Europe on Tuesday, causing widespread disruption. 'We are facing a global epidemic of cyberattacks because fundamentally the internet ... is not secure. The highest end actors can get into your systems if they want to,' Carlin, chairman of the Aspen Institute's cybersecurity and technology program, told 'Power Lunch.'"

New York Times: Hacks Raise Fear Over N.S.A.’s Hold on Cyberweapons — "Twice in the past month, National Security Agency cyberweapons stolen from its arsenal have been turned against two very different partners of the United States — Britain and Ukraine. The N.S.A. has kept quiet, not acknowledging its role in developing the weapons. White House officials have deflected many questions, and responded to others by arguing that the focus should be on the attackers themselves, not the manufacturer of their weapons."

International Security: Deterrence and Dissuasion in Cyberspace — "Understanding deterrence and dissuasion in cyberspace is often difficult because our minds are captured by Cold War images of massive retaliation to a nuclear attack by nuclear means. The analogy to nuclear deterrence is misleading, however, because many aspects of cyber behavior are more like other behaviors, such as crime, that states try (imperfectly) to deter. Preventing harm in cyberspace involves four complex mechanisms: threats of punishment, denial, entanglement, and norms."