Cyber Security Is the New Sputnik

Exactly 60 years ago today, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched a small basketball-sized satellite called Sputnik into orbit around the earth. Sputnik was a wake-up call, and Americans feared that our nation did not have the workforce to win the Space Race. Congress acted, and in September 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act that over four years directed more than $1 billion toward improving science curricula. The response to Sputnik helped to inspire and train a new generation of American students in math and science and many would subsequently pursue careers in science and technology.So here we are six decades later, and today's cyber threat represents a modern challenge of a very different sort. But fear of a data breach or a cyber disruption doesn't drive the same kind of visceral reaction as fear of losing the Space Race. I believe that it should. Today's anniversary should remind us that, as we address a contemporary workforce shortage, we do not have enough trained and qualified cyber defenders to protect U.S. cyber assets now and in the future.Many of you are reading this column on a smart phone or tablet. We take the Internet, high-speed communication links, the cloud and our mobile devices for granted. But cyberspace is more than a platform for convenience, social media and sharing videos. From financial services, to healthcare, to retail, to government and much more, we depend on a reliable, scalable and defensible cyber infrastructure.  Continue reading...