U.S. cannot afford to wait for international cyber controls

Despite the increase in cyber threats and their growing sophistication, and also the recent release of the Obama Administration’s cybersecurity legislation, international regulations and controls for cyberspace are nowhere in sight, reports David A. Fulghum in Aviation Week's Ares Blog.

However, the United States cannot wait for international cybersecurity rules to be set and must instead establish its own policy – perhaps even multiple policies for its dealings with individual nations – now before any significant incidents occur, said Bob Giesler, former director of information operations and strategic studies in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, who spoke June 8 at a forum sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Some of the areas the U.S. government needs to work on in the cybersecurity arena, according to other experts at the forum, include instituting methods to determine who is behind a cyberattack, developing consistent responses to attacks and ensuring that U.S. businesses are protected.