Cyberspace Strategy & Policy
The Internet and the world-wide-web are among the most successful technological and commercial advances in human history. Yet with all the progress and success, there is a dark cloud hanging over cyberspace, and that dark cloud is security. Cyber infrastructure is tightly intertwined into the very fabric of our lives and there is no going back to an earlier time, yet we are paying a heavy price for our technological dependence and the problem is worsening with the passage of time. Our trust in cyberspace has been taken from us by hackers, cybercriminals and sophisticated cyberadversaries who intend to do us harm. We expect system resources to be available to us if we are legitimate users of those resources. We expect our information to be confidential from prying eyes. We expect that our information will not be altered in a way that we do not intend. We expect that it should not be impossibly difficult to protect ourselves in cyberspace if/when the need arises. These expectations are simply not being met today. Attacks on both the public sector and the private sector are rampant. Denial of service, identity theft, and cyber extortion are now all too common. Financial systems, national critical infrastructure systems, and military systems are all potential targets of sophisticated cyber attacks. Foreign intelligence organizations are trying to hack into U.S. government systems and articles on cyberwarfare are now common in the public press. Cybersecurity has risen to the level of a national security problem.
Through interdisciplinary analysis and study, this graduate level seminar covers one of the most important national security issues facing us today: cyber security. Its primary objective is to provide students with an in-depth understanding and broad analytical framework (and set of tools) through which they can understand the complex policy and strategic issues associated with the cyberspace challenges facing us today.
A longer description is available for download under "syllabus."
This course will be taught from October 3 through October 31, 2013 by Dr. Fred Chang, President and Chief Operating Officer for 21CT, Inc.