Cyber Security: Next Pearl Harbor?

KK Arora

A spate of cyber-attacks, some of which were quite serious, have recently affected government agencies as well as businesses in a wide range of industries, including the CIA, US Senate, IMF, NATO, Google, Lockheed Martin, Sony, Citigroup, and others. This has led the Pentagon to enunciate a formal cyber strategy and Leon Panetta, the US Defense Secretary, to warn that “the next Pearl Harbor we confront could very well be a cyber-attack.”

The purpose of a cyber-attack may be to embarrass or incapacitate an organization and/or to steal its intellectual property or customer identification and financial data. Companies on the receiving end of cyber-attacks have suffered monetary losses in the billions, damage to their brand, and loss of customer confidence. When the attack is on a government agency or a company that works with the government, what is stolen or damaged can have lasting consequences for our national defense and security.  “It’s not a brave new world; it’s a bad new world,” in the words of Howard Stringer, the Sony CEO.  “It’s the beginning, unfortunately—or the shape of things to come,” he added.

Against this backdrop, Eogogics is introducing its Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare curriculum with a couple of new courses.  Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare (CYBERSEC, 2 days) addresses the key issues of cyber security and cyber warfare.  It begins with an introduction to information, network, and computer security. It then delves into how these technologies can be influenced and attacked at a national, strategic level as part of a cyber-warfare campaign.

Cyber Space and Cyber Conflict Policy (CYBERPOL, 2 days) offers an overview of cyber space and cyber governance, covering both national and international policies and regulations that shape how the Internet is used and involved in cyber conflict.

These courses will, of course, be of interest to government agencies such as Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, National Labs, and the Intelligence Community as well as to the companies who interface with or develop/operate information/communications systems for the government. They will also interest any private sector company that has the visibility and/or the information that makes it the potential target of a hack or attack.

Both courses are taught by instructors currently involved in pushing the state-of-the-art of cyber security/warfare, both on the technology and policy/regulation sides, and are continually updated to include the latest research and practice.  All classes are tailored to the participants’ industry and “tech-level”.

If you would like to find out more about our cyber security/warfare curricula, just call 1 (888) 364-6442 (or +1 703 281 3525 internationally) or email sales@eogogics.com.