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point of view ; Cyber attack is the next terrorist threat [Florida Times Union]
[September 23, 2014]

point of view ; Cyber attack is the next terrorist threat [Florida Times Union]


(Florida Times Union Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) By the time you finish reading this, a 17-year-old Albanian kid could have hacked into your bank account, maxed out your credit cards and stolen your life savings.

A terrorist group based in Mali could have hijacked the electrical grid for the entire Southeastern United States.

According to the 2014 Worldwide Threat Assessment, cyber attacks are the United States' greatest threat, unseating terrorism for the second year in a row. We are not prepared to stop them.

The war has already started. Forty million credit card records were stolen online from Target customers. Approximately 15 million Americans are victims of identity theft each year with an average cost per victim of $3,500.

Relatively free from regulation, cyberspace has become a safe haven for illegal activity, including human trafficking, anonymous online drug markets and the emergence of virtual currencies. Cyber makes these transactions easier to conduct and harder to prevent.



Our Political Science class studied this urgent threat and has just returned from a trip to Washington where we presented our recommendations to better meet this challenge.

We offered recommendations in five areas to improve U.S. cyber security: increase cyber threat awareness, negotiate an international cyber convention, update cyber bureaucracy, introduce new legislation and regulate virtual currency.


We first addressed the issue of "modern slavery"- human trafficking. Even though Jacksonville itself is considered a nexus for this heinous crime and Florida is its third largest American hub, the general public is unaware of the scope of the problem.

We advocated a media campaign, led by the first lady and her daughters, to raise awareness of cyber trafficking, including determination of your slavery footprint, computer generated girls to trap abusers, social media public service announcements and a Kony- style video.

Additionally, we challenged the administration to host an International Trafficking Summit to share lessons learned and best practices in order to establish a global effort to combat trafficking.

We proposed the creation of a sixth branch of the armed forces to develop anti-cyber capabilities, a federal insurance program to protect critical infrastructure owners who met cyber security guidelines, the formation of a White House National Cyber Council to implement the president's goals and the creation of a domestic control center to investigate cyber outbreaks.

The legislative changes we proposed included requiring wireless medical devices, like pacemakers and insulin pumps, to be hacker- proof and increasing the cyber security of our sea ports.

Our last recommendation was to tax and regulate virtual currency, such as Bitcoin, and to stop people using anonymous web browsers to conduct illicit activities. We believe that regulating both will allow law enforcement agencies to track and deter cyber criminals.

The U.S. must strike a delicate balance between regulating the worst aspects of cyberspace but still permitting the freedoms and liberties that have led to the astounding creativity and innovation that cyberspace can offer.

Everyone must take responsibility. In Jacksonville, the most basic step to protect yourself online is to practice good cyber hygiene, especially creating safe and strong passwords and staying up on software programs. Use common sense. Disregard anything you don't recognize.

We were struck by how open U.S. officials were to our ideas and how it is up to our generation to keep us safe. If we don't, we may face a catastrophe even more devastating than Sept. 11, 2001.The UNF class visited Washington, D.C., on March 31 and April 1 and met with senior officials of the departments of Defense and State, the National Security Staff, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Senate, Cambridge Global and the British Embassy.

(c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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