{"id":302,"date":"2009-11-02T09:24:45","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T16:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harvardnsj.com\/?p=302"},"modified":"2009-11-02T09:24:45","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T16:24:45","slug":"cybersecurity-experts-discuss-cyberterrorist-threat-at-hls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/2009\/11\/cybersecurity-experts-discuss-cyberterrorist-threat-at-hls\/","title":{"rendered":"HLS Hosted Panel of Cybersecurity Experts Discuss Cyberterrorist Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mat Trachok,<\/strong> HLS 2012 NSJ Staff Writer
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

What exactly is the nature of the cyberterrorist threat?\u00a0 How realistic is the prospect of nation-to-nation cyberwarfare?\u00a0 How should the government respond to and protect against such threats?\u00a0 What role should the law play in fighting cyberterrorism?\u00a0 On Wednesday, October 28th<\/sup>, the Harvard Law School National Security & Law Association and the Journal on Law & Technology co-hosted a panel discussion moderated by HLS Professor Phil Malone that sought to answer these questions.\u00a0 The panel brought together experts from both inside and outside the U.S. government, including Leonard Bailey, cyberterrorism expert in the Department of Justice National Security Division; Dr. Andrew Colarik, cyberterrorism expert and author; and Kim Taipale, executive director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy.<\/p>\n


\nThe panelists first addressed how technology has made the United States more vulnerable to terrorists operating in cyberspace.\u00a0 Taipale identified two main weaknesses.\u00a0 He first posited that advances in technology encourage the United States to pursue greater efficiency in the operation of its information systems.\u00a0 Improved efficiency, however, has made the country\u2019s infrastructure more fragile:\u00a0 the United States has removed redundancies and created single points of failure in its essential systems.\u00a0 Second, current technology allows small groups and individuals to leverage power that previously could only be leveraged by nation-states.\u00a0 Colarik agreed, saying that cyber attacks offer terrorists and nations the opportunity to inflict extraordinary damage at minimal cost.\u00a0 Indeed, cyberterrorists could cheaply exert control over many essential components of the national infrastructure, including traffic lights, electrical grids, navigation systems, the electronic financial system, and even hospital blood-type registries.\u00a0 Such attacks could not only inflict casualties, but also create widespread chaos by undermining confidence in those systems.<\/p>\n

The panelists also discussed how the United States could better protect itself from cyber attacks.\u00a0 Bailey focused on the need to create a lexicon with which to discuss cyber threats, since the inability to discuss them in a uniform way hampers the United States\u2019 response capacity.\u00a0 For instance, Bailey pointed out that there is no consensus as to whether a cyber attack carried out exclusively over computer systems is a use of force that triggers Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.\u00a0 Taipale argued for an update to the national security command structure.\u00a0 He maintained that responses to national security threats remain bifurcated even as the threats themselves are becoming increasingly unbounded.\u00a0 Taipale further pointed out that while many approach national security through either a military or a criminal paradigm, most modern threats involve both military and civilian infrastructure (e.g., telephone and missile systems often run through the same systems).<\/p>\n

One point of disagreement among the panelists was over Colarik\u2019s idea to institute a two-year statutory shelf life on personal data.\u00a0 Currently, personal information is stored on the Internet indefinitely and is often easily available to terrorists who use it to assume new identities and move with ease across borders.\u00a0 By putting a shelf life on personal information, Colarik argued, it would be more difficult for terrorists to access and use that information.\u00a0 Taipale and Bailey said that while such a measure might improve security, it would necessarily infringe upon the ability of web sites like Google to provide access to a wealth of information, an undesirable consequence.<\/p>\n

President Obama named October to be the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, with the launch of the new U.S. Cyber Command and the opening of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC)<\/a>.\u00a0 For more on the debate over U.S. cybersecurity measures, see the proposals being discussed today at a symposium<\/a> hosted by George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mat Trachok, HLS 2012 NSJ Staff Writer What exactly is the nature of the cyberterrorist threat?\u00a0 How realistic is the prospect of nation-to-nation cyberwarfare?\u00a0 How should the government respond to and protect against such threats?\u00a0 What role should the law play in fighting cyberterrorism?\u00a0 On Wednesday, October 28th, the Harvard Law School National Security & Law Association and the Journal on Law & Technology co-hosted a panel discussion moderated by HLS Professor Phil Malone that sought to answer these questions.\u00a0 The panel brought together experts from both inside and outside the U.S. government, including Leonard Bailey, cyberterrorism expert in 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