Primer on cybersecurity and public policy for nonspecialists

Sat, 17 May 2014 23:04:07 -0400
cybersecurity, news

[Video]

The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Academies has released of a report entitled At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy: Some Basic Concepts and Issues in prepublication form. The final book version of the report will be available around end of May, and a PDF of that final version will also be available for free at this web site.

According to the study director and CSTB chief scientist Dr. Herb Lin, “This report is a first for CSTB in that it seeks to distill the cybersecurity wisdom and insight of this entire body of Academy work in a form that is easily accessible to nonspecialists. It provides the essential technical background for understanding cyber threats and the basic principles of cybersecurity, and is pretty much self-contained in this regard. At the same time, it underscores the point that improvements in cybersecurity depend at least as much on non-technical factors, based in fields such as economics and psychology, as on secure code or tamper-resistant hardware.”

National Research Council. At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy: Some Basic Concepts and Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014. ( Download )

We depend on information and information technology (IT) to make many of our day-to-day tasks easier and more convenient. Computers play key roles in transportation, health care, banking, and energy. Businesses use IT for payroll and accounting, inventory and sales, and research and development. Modern military forces use weapons that are increasingly coordinated through computer-based networks. Cybersecurity is vital to protecting all of these functions. Cyberspace is vulnerable to a broad spectrum of hackers, criminals, terrorists, and state actors. Working in cyberspace, these malevolent actors can steal money, intellectual property, or classified information; impersonate law-abiding parties for their own purposes; damage important data; or deny the availability of normally accessible services. Cybersecurity issues arise because of three factors taken together – the presence of malevolent actors in cyberspace, societal reliance on IT for many important functions, and the presence of vulnerabilities in IT systems. What steps can policy makers take to protect our government, businesses, and the public from those would take advantage of system vulnerabilities?

At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy offers a wealth of information on practical measures, technical and nontechnical challenges, and potential policy responses. According to this report, cybersecurity is a never-ending battle; threats will evolve as adversaries adopt new tools and techniques to compromise security. Cybersecurity is therefore an ongoing process that needs to evolve as new threats are identified. At the Nexus of Cybersecurity and Public Policy is a call for action to make cybersecurity a public safety priority. For a number of years, the cybersecurity issue has received increasing public attention; however, most policy focus has been on the short-term costs of improving systems. In its explanation of the fundamentals of cybersecurity and the discussion of potential policy responses, this book will be a resource for policy makers, cybersecurity and IT professionals, and anyone who wants to understand threats to cyberspace.