CYBER SECURITY NO LONGER JUST AN “IT THING”

“(V)irtually every national security and criminal threat the bureau faces is cyber-based or technologically facilitated,” according FBI Director Christopher Wray.  Echoing Wray’s concerns was DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who said that threats from nation-state adversaries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are at the highest levels since the Cold War, largely due to leveraging cyber to conduct espionage and related operations.  The duo made these comments at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing just last week.  These statements are certainly attention-getting, not because they’re necessarily new, but because they point to the reality that internet connectivity is globally pervasive and impacts almost all daily functions.  There is a substantial need, and opportunity, for contractors who can provide both traditional and non-traditional cyber security solutions.  To put this in perspective, FBI Director Wray stated at the hearing that China is “the broadest, most complicated, most long-term counterintelligence threat we face.”  That mandates non-traditional thinking, including such insights as to how Chinese culture comes into play in the formulation of cyber strategies.  Internet connectivity isn’t just an IT thing anymore, it’s everywhere, and so, too, must be cyber security.