Joseph Menn, of the Los Angeles Times, wrote an article entitled "Parties at odds over cyber-security". The article focused on three major security breaches to the Internet within the past month that exposed a huge rift between Corporate America and the Federal Government over who should be responsible for fixing the Internet loopholes. The three major incidents include (1) an international ring that was cracked by law enforcement personnel which focused on customer databases and trafficked in tens of millions of credit card numbers; (2) hackers who steered Web surfers to fake sites, which were similar to popular commercial sites, that unleashed all kinds of malicious software code; and (3) computer assaults by the state-run Russion telecommunications company against government sites in Georgia.
Cyber-security experts are concerned that these kinds of attacks are not garnering the kind of attention necessary to find an adequate solution. Niether major-party candidate has addressed this problem publicly, and so far, Congress has been slow to react. The Federal Government feels that private industry is better suited to resolve this issue, but Corporate America says that the problem is far to large and complex to be addressed without some sort of governmental assistance. Mr. Menn suggests that the reason for the disconnect is that: "[c]ybersecurity crosses so many lines in the executive branch. Homeland Security oversees protection of government networks, and the FBI and Secret Service pursue cybercrimes. When those cases lead to other countries, the State Department must get involved. More important, most of the Internet’s infrastructure — the big computers and data pipes through which bits travel — is in private hands."
Whoever is elected next President will likely address more high profile issues than this one, but as the Internet becomes used more and more each day, by businesses and consumers alike, organized attacks over the Internet will occur more frequently, and potentially subject a business to lawsuits involving non-monetary and monetary damages.
To read Mr. Menn’s full article, please click here: Parties at odds over cyber-security