The IT Pro Podcast: Should the US cyber army be more aggressive?

It’s fair to say that the US has a lot on its plate when it comes to cyber security. Criminal organisations and foreign operatives continue to find new ways to attack public businesses and private citizens, and as digital technology becomes more and more essential for everyday life, cyber attacks on critical infrastructure are becoming an increasingly troubling prospect.

As digital aggression from countries like Russia and China becomes more of a concern, the question emerges as to whether the US military’s cyber division needs to respond in kind. This week, we’re joined by IT Pro’s US managing editor Justin Cupler and staff writer Zach Marzouk to discuss the prospect of a more aggressive US cyber strategy, and what impact it could have on the country’s safety.

Highlights

“The military is very heavily regulated. It'd be very difficult to have a cyber force in the military, because of all those regulations. If we were to take that idea, and push it over to one of our more covert agencies like the CIA or FBI, suddenly, those rules of engagement go away to a point. Because they are covert, they can do essentially whatever they want, because nobody knows what exactly they're doing.”

“Yeah, I agree with Justin, I think the US needs to unify its talent, communication and collaboration across cybersecurity into one central location. The real danger here is that right now, its opponents across the globe are looking on and licking their lips, seeing how easy it is to make an impact on the country by sending a link to a government worker and an email address or something. So it's definitely something that needs to scale up fairly rapidly and be put into action to protect the nation.”

Read the full transcript here.

Footnotes

• Why IT recruiters should look for experts from the military sector
• UK military used malware to disrupt extremist networks
• Carving a pathway into tech for veterans
• US Air Force taps Novetta for base defense operations
• It's too late to let slip the robodogs of war now we have ransomware
• UK's National Cyber Force will be based in the North
• US indicts four Chinese military officials over Equifax hack
• US, UK security agencies warn against Russian ‘global brute force campaign’
• Biden warns cyber attacks could lead to “shooting war”
• AT&T helps train veterans to fight cyber crime
• CIA Vault 7 leak blamed on "woefully lax" attitude to cyber security
• Department of Defense appoints John Sherman as acting CIO
• Most IT executives fear nation-state hacking tools will be used on them
• What threat do nation state hackers pose to businesses?

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