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Cybersecurity And National Security

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Cybersecurity reaches the Presidential address level. From the Pentagon to identity theft to your bank account. We’ll dig in.

In this file photo, United States Military Academy cadets watch data on computers at the Cyber Research Center at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., Wednesday, April 9, 2014.  (AP)
In this file photo, United States Military Academy cadets watch data on computers at the Cyber Research Center at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., Wednesday, April 9, 2014. (AP)

A whole lot of the country runs on the Internet now, from the Pentagon to the power grid to our personal finances.  And we know – from hacks on Sony and Centcom and Target and JP Morgan – that the Internet has enormous vulnerabilities.  Tightening web security has been challenging.  Corporations and privacy advocates and government spies can all have reasons to resist.  Now the President is pushing a new package of legislation.  Is it the right stuff?  Will it work?  Can it pass?  This hour On Point:  cybersecurity, vested interests, vulnerability and you.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Brian Fung, technology reporter for the Washington Post. (@b_fung)

Scott Borg, director and chief economist at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.

Allan Friedman, cybersecurity expert and research scientist at George Washington University's School of Engineering. Co-author of "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs To Know."  (@allanfriedman)

From Tom’s Reading List

Washington Post: President Obama just made a big privacy announcement. Here’s what you need to know. — "President Obama is announcing a major legislative push aimed at helping to safeguard your privacy. With his speech Monday, Obama's signaling that identity theft and consumer protection will be top priorities for his administration in 2015; already, the White House is saying that these issues will be raised again in this year's State of the Union address."

The Wall Street Journal: White House Aims to Harden Cyberattack Defense — "The White House is pushing for new laws and executive actions that would tighten corporate defenses against cyberattacks, following major breaches at Target, Home Depot , and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The initiatives mark the latest in the government’s evolving and at times fledgling efforts to thwart computer attacks. President Barack Obama will offer new legislative proposals on Tuesday. An executive order, which is still being drafted, is several weeks away, said people familiar with the process."

WIRED: It Doesn’t Really Matter if ISIS Sympathizers Hacked Central Command’s Twitter — "For 40 minutes yesterday, followers of the most feared terrorist organization in the world had free reign of a computer network of the US military. That is the story that many will take away from the hack of CENTCOM’s Twitter and YouTube accounts. And that story will be hyperbole."

This program aired on January 14, 2015.

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