Cybersecurity: leadership challenges in the cyber threat era.

• Author: Brill, Christopher
• Position: TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY

Computers represent one of those rare creations in history whose unforeseen effects cascade throughout society, leaving lasting change. Emergent technology, such as the printing press or gunpowder, can challenge the status quo by creating new paradigms for how nations conduct war and diplomacy. Meanwhile, individuals charged with securing critical components of functional society--electrical grids, power plants, transportation networks--face unprecedented threats as well.

Non-state actors (like Anonymous) and cyber protagonists (men like Edward Snowden) can infiltrate networks and threaten protected data with just a smart phone, and businesses are unprepared to defend against this new and dangerous threat. Deloitte's cyber advisor, Ed Powers, noted recently in the Wall Street Journal that among companies with more than $1 billion annual revenue, "Nearly 25 percent ... are insufficiently prepared for such [cyber] crises, and just 10 percent say they are well-prepared."

Given that any employee with a smartphone or laptop can make a company vulnerable, and coupled with increased rates of cyber attacks, businesses should continuously reassess their cybersecurity programs to defend their high-value assets. Cybersecurity exposes leadership challenges in the cyber threat era.

Catching Up

The US government is hastily catching up. Although it has a National Security Strategy, the United States acknowledges the direct challenge of defending cyberspace. Military services, like their civilian counterparts, run operations and lines of communication on a backbone of crisscrossed wires and networks. In turn they are susceptible and vulnerable across the spectrum of threats, from wannabe malicious intruders to foreign state sanctioned cyber militias.

Although no one can predict the future with 100 percent certainty, we can take advantage of historical lessons learned by examining how emergent technology altered war and warfare. Cyber may be a new domain, but war itself is older than human recorded history--thus we are provided with centuries of information that assist in evaluating how emergent technology and rising threats have altered the face of defense and security.

One hundred years ago, European leaders sought every benefit of new technology along the battlefields of World War I. Planners used the full extent of railroads, airplanes, and radio technology for strategic, operational, and tactical advantage. Consequently, Europe was nearly bled to death...