President Obama has declared that cyber threat is one of the most serious national security challenges the nation faces. Cyberspace is part of every facet of American life, from the networks in schools, hospitals and banks. It's crucial to the grids that provide energy. It's also vital to the country's classified military and intelligence networks that keep Americans safe, and the Internet that increasingly connects society.

Below Wook-Sung Yoo, Ph.D., associate professor of software engineering at Fairfield University's School of Engineering, comments on the importance of cyber security. Dr. Yoo has been awarded more than $1.2 million in grants, including grants from the NASA Kennedy Space Center. Extensively published, his research interests include web technology, health informatics, and artificial intelligence. He serves on the National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovation Research panel.

"Today, we are more interconnected than ever and many aspects of our lives rely on the Internet. However, increased connectivity brings increased risk of cyber security. We hear and experience the phishing scams, data theft, malware, worms, Trojan horses, Scareware, Botnets and zombies, Denial-of-service, and many other online vulnerabilities. New attack methods are continuously launched every day. Against many people's hope, however, there is no known silver bullet to solve all security problems, theoretically and practically, in spite of continuous development of innovative solutions to improve cyber-space security.

The software engineering program at Fairfield University has offered several IT security courses to build cybersecurity workforce and integrated security topics in curriculum to train cybersecurity-aware software engineers. However, it's important that each of us understands that a safer and more secure cyber-space is a shared responsibility. Update operating systems, browsers, anti-virus, anti-spyware and other software programs regularly. Use strong passwords and do not share them. Think before you click and do not open email or attachments from untrusted sources. As stated by President Obama, cyber threat becomes one of the most serious economic and national security challenges like terrorism and we should take an active part in protecting our community."

Posted On: 05-16-2013 11:05 AM

Volume: 45 Number: 289