The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee introduced legslation intended to enhance information sharing between private companies and intelligence agencies about cybersecurity threats.

I recently interviewed Marc Goodman, founder of the Future Crimes Institute and author of the recently published book “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It.” In his book, Goodman sets forth with great precision the frightening extent to which current and emerging technologies are harming national and corporate security, putting people’s lives at risk, eroding privacy, and even altering our perceptions of reality.

Over the last several years, it has become commonplace for the media to publish information based on electronic materials that have been removed or copied either by organizational insiders and/or external people or groups. The publication of this type of material has impacted individuals, public and private organizations and various government agencies. While it is important for a free society to have the benefits of a free press serving as one of the checks and balances to protect citizens from abusive practices, we may have reached a point where we should re-examine how this is practiced. Are our criminal and civil statues effective on these issues?

The Cisco 2015 Annual Security Report reveals that organizations must adopt an 'all hands on deck' approach to defend against cyber attacks.

Ask most corporate executives to define cybersecurity and their initial thoughts turn to data privacy. That’s for good reason. Companies are bleeding corporate trade secrets and personally identifiable information at such an alarming rate that confidentiality issues and related compliance concerns can’t help but dominate the cybersecurity agenda. Yet, ask cybersecurity professionals what keeps them up at night, and the topic invariably turns to data deletion, tampering with control systems, and the potential to cause physical harm over the Internet. These concerns fall into categories that are distinct from protecting data confidentiality. Instead, they demonstrate the importance of maintaining an enterprise focus on the integrity and availability of your company’s most essential data, systems and services.

Over the past three years, most healthcare data breaches were the result of lost or stolen devices, not hacking (only 23 percent). For records breached, 76 percent were the result of a loss or theft. 

 Sixty-one percent of Americans believethat their data is not secure, according to a survey from PKWARE. Theft of financial and identity information causes the most concern among respondents, with the leading data at risk cited as Social Security numbers and banking information, including credit cards.  

The 21st Century is often referred to as the information age; the developing global marketplace has contributed to the entrance of new cultures and economies into the competitive global economy.  Due to globally available infrastructure and the development of global telecommunication/computing capabilities, it has enabled individuals, companies and countries to compete globally on a level playing field with traditional Western powers even from some of the most remote parts of the world.  Unfortunately this has also created conditions in which the threat of corporate espionage has been rapidly proliferating due to the ease threat actors can ply their trade both through physical and virtual actions against U.S. corporations.