Building a More Secure Cyber Future

No country, company, or consumer is immune to cybersecurity threats. The United States faces a growing array of threats from hackers, from criminals, terrorists, and nation states who seek to gain access to sensitive or classified information. This also includes efforts to steal intellectual property or consumers' personal information, deny the availability of normally accessible online services, or potentially sabotage the networks and control systems of critical infrastructure. While cyber threats are not new, we saw a number of notable cyber events last year. In 2014, security flaws such as Sandworm, Shellshock, POODLE, and Heartbleed compromised millions of servers and systems. Attacks on point of sale systems sent ripples through the retail industry, not to mention the significant cyber hack of Sony Pictures. The estimate for Sony is something like $100 million. Some studies estimate that cyber attacks are costing American business as much as $400 billion a year. These cyber attacks also threaten the national security. Now, if a saboteur came and blew up an electric plant here, that would be an attack upon America. A cyber attack can do the same thing. It may be upon an electrical plant or a business grid, or a water system-whatever is going to try to inject economic pain and terror into the American people.