Help Change the Game in Cybersecurity!

Today marks the launch of a new web forum to discuss your research and development ideas to “change the game” in cybersecurity. To inaugurate this forum, public session will be webcast live today from 1:30 to 4:30pm PDT, from the IEEE Security and Privacy Conference in Oakland, California.

Comprising the broadband and wireless networks that connect us, the smart devices that enable us, and the digital information that informs and inspires us, cyberspace touches every part of our daily lives. This includes enabling entrepreneurship through e-commerce, enhancing health care and education through online information technologies, achieving efficient energy use through smart grids, and many other uses.

The ability to use cyberspace securely and with confidence is key to society realizing its full benefits. As President Obama said last May: “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity."

Yet today, those who would abuse the system often hold the advantages of time (systems change only slowly), opportunity (an attacker needs to succeed only once while defenders must succeed always), and targets (a single vulnerability may be found in many locations).

In a challenge to the research and development community, the President’s Cyberspace Policy Review (near-term action item #9) called for a strategy for new, game-changing technologies that give the advantage to beneficial use. This challenge complements and extends the call in the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI goal #9) for “leap-ahead” technologies, strategies, and programs.

The National Cyber Leap Year responded to this challenge, gathering input from the community through concept papers and a national summit. The first three game-changing concepts to emerge from this process are:

• Moving Target – Systems that move in multiple dimensions to disadvantage the attacker and increase resiliency.
• Tailored Trustworthy Spaces – Security tailored to the needs of a particular transaction rather than the other way around.
• Cyber Economic Incentives – A landscape of incentives that reward good cybersecurity and ensure crime doesn’t pay.

Join in and help refine these concepts and chart a path forward. Visit the web forum, share your ideas, learn what others are thinking, and explore how you might collaborate with innovators across the private and public sectors. Also, stay tuned as we will be looking for your advice on how to continue the game-change process to stay ahead of those who would abuse the system. Working together we can ensure that cyberspace is safe and secure for commerce, learning, innovation, interaction, and discovery.

Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer

Howard A. Schmidt is the President’s Cybersecurity Coordinator