Securing our nation and protecting privacy

In recent times, our nation´s network infrastructure has continually been under attack by hackers from around the globe. From career criminals to other government agencies outside the U.S., network attacks and intrusions are increasing. Their attacks including the 2009 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks caused massive outages for website of government agencies. Additionally, the 2010 and ongoing WikiLeaks attack led to catastrophic results that threaten U.S. diplomacy. Unfortunately, the United State response has been slow and painstaking. In 2009, our nation faced a massive DDoS attack that caused many government websites that include White House, Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and the Federal Aviation Administrators to lose service. Approximately 60,000 infected computers were used to launch the attacks. In addition, the 2009 DDoS attacks also targeted commerce and news media sites. In response to these attacks, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security have increased their methods and resources to help secure our nation´s infrastructure. This research will ask, if this is enough to secure the nation, and what other new technologies can these agencies employ to thwart the attacks? As much as our government is facing countless attacks, corporations and businesses have also faced attacks. Attacks including the2007 TJX Security Breach resulted in millions of credit card numbers and other confidential consumer information to be compromised. In 2009, the Heartland Payment Systems followed resulting in 100 million credit cards being compromised. Both cases, information was captured by hackers; it was distributed to illegal “so called” dump sites and trading forums in which confidential data ranging from PIN to social security numbers are traded online and distributed worldwide. What new technologies can the corporate sector explore to secure consumers´ information? Consumers´ privacy has also been an issue- - for Information Security. In the United States, privacy laws have favored the corporate interest. Consumers´ information is constantly distributed to other third party members without acknowledgement. In contrast, European laws have favored the individual by enforcing strict privacy laws that prevents the corporate sector to distribute information without acknowledgment. This research will determine if these tough privacy laws better protect consumers´ information from security breaches. If so, can they implement them here in the United States? As the number of attacks and security breaches continue to rise, we must act now to the growing demands of security. Our nation and its economy rely heavily on our information infrastructure; we must build the defenses that ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability within our nation and its infrastructure.