Confronting the Challenge of Cybersecurity

Federal agencies need help, especially when it comes to improving their own cybersecurity practices. You may have read in the news about cyber attacks this year on unclassified e-mail networks at the Pentagon, the State Department, and even the White House. If any of you have ever applied for a security clearance, which some of you probably do in conjunction with the CyberCorps job application process, then you have probably been subject to the breach of background investigation information at the Office of Personnel Management. Similar compromises of sensitive information occurred with the Internal Revenue Service. The same state-sponsored hackers and criminal groups that are attacking the Federal Government to gain access to sensitive or classified information are using similar techniques to steal intellectual property from businesses and critical infrastructure, disrupt and deny access to online services, and steal identities and personal information to fraudulently spend money.