Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

cyber insurance, Cybersecurity, encryption, Trump

Cyber Round Up: Cyber Executive Order; Politicians Should Stay Out; Half of Web Encrypted

  • Big changes in Trump’s cybersecurity executive order (CNN):   Reports Tuesday that President Trump would be signing an Executive Order addressing cyber policies ultimately ended with him just discussing the content of the order with his lead advisers, according to a CNN article.   The report says that major changes are coming to the way the U.S. does cyber, including consolidating responsibility within one government office.  Trump said that agency officials will be held accountable for their agency’s cyber security, the report suggests.  The EO also calls for better coordination with the government, military, and schools, suggesting that the cybersecurity problem today has a component that can be fixed with increased education.  A draft of the Executive Order obtained by CNN is included in this post.  The full text of the article can be read here.

  • Politicians should stay out of cybersecurity market (R Street):   Discussion of the development of an insurance market for cyber security has led to a call by some for politicians to stay out of the way, an op-ed piece yesterday suggested.   The opinion laid out some instances where ransomware attacks have held institutions hostage, and the institution ultimately end up paying the price to regain control of their systems.   Cyber insurance has value for  the secondary and tertiary costs of a breach, the author said, including consumer notification, credit monitoring, fines, and even business interruption.  The author argues, however, that only the wealth of knowledge and flexibility available in the private markets are enough to properly manage the cyber insurance industry, not government officials. The full text of the article can be found here.
  • Mozilla confirms half of web is encrypted − but does that mean greater security? (Computer Business Review):   A recent article questioned whether increased encryption is really good for security.  Mozilla announced after a two week study that about half the internet is now encrypted, the article said, meaning content was being delivered through HTTPS instead of just HTTP.   The article quotes experts who argue that encryption creates tunnels that simply provide a hiding spot for those with malicious intent if businesses are not prepared enough.  The article presented one compelling statistic, which showed that some experts believe as much as 70% of future attacks will occur through encryption.  The full article can be found here.

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