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7-4 Persuasive Essay - Grade: A
English Composition II (ENG123)
Southern New Hampshire University
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the private sector? Should government have a more active role in cybersecurity in the private sector? Ryan Fitzpatrick English Department ENG-123-Q5470 English Composition II 21EW Christopher Bevard 06/20/
the private sector?
The problem I will be addressing is the increasing frequency and severity of cyber terrorism, and the private sectors inability to properly protect themselves. We have seen cyberattacks constantly rising in recent years and the private sector has not kept up with the increasing severity of the attacks. Government needs to step in to take more control over cyber security in the private sector due to issues like the Colonial Pipeline hack, WannaCry, and the prevalence of other countries using cyberwarfare to disrupt our infrastructure. First, we have the recent Colonial Pipeline hack that affected oil production across the eastern US. In “Colonial pipeline failure exposes an obvious willful ignorance to take cybersecurity seriously” by PR Newswire, 2021 it states this company has invested 1 billion dollars in system integrity and preventive maintenance in the last 5 years. Yet they still suffered a hack so bad they ended up paying nearly 5-million-dollar ransom to get access to their systems and get oil flowing again. This hack had not only the financial impact to the business, but it affected infrastructure due to the loss of oil flowing, and citizens hoarding fuel. We also have the less recent but even more globally
the private sector? lethal terrorist attack. In the United States we have had cyber- attacks increase by more than 600% between 2006 to 2016. We also have Issues like Russia using social media to influence the 2016 election through disinformation. While this is not an outright hack, it is still a form cyberterrorism. In “Cyberwarfare” 2020, Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election concluded that “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion”. There were more than 3,000 ads on Facebook alone that were aimed at voters in the swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin. There was also successful phishing attacks that enabled access to Democratic campaign emails. As well as evidence showing that hackers had obtained the ability to delete or change voter data in Illinois, but investigators found no evidence of any votes being changed. This has caused a large amount of disinformation to be spread across the United States during prior to and during the election. I know there will be counterarguments that more government control is not wanted, at some point we must realize the companies protecting our infrastructure is not properly defending itself. It may not even be a matter of having government taking control of cybersecurity, as I can completely
the private sector? understand the concern of allowing anyone to have backdoors into the entire private sector. There could perhaps be requirements that need to be met by corporations, so their systems are properly protected. It could even be made mandatory for the NIST cybersecurity framework to be used on at least critical infrastructure so that any potential risks can be assessed and addressed appropriately. The government will need to step in a larger capacity than simply providing information to help secure companies I do believe though. Too many corporations have shown they will do the bare minimum required to maximize profit. In conclusion, I think government having more control over cybersecurity would keep our infrastructure better protected. This can be from better security for our critical systems like pipelines, air travel, etc. to better monitoring of social media to watch for disinformation.
7-4 Persuasive Essay - Grade: A
Course: English Composition II (ENG123)
University: Southern New Hampshire University
