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Katie Morris
Professor Deadrick
English 102
March 30th, 2016
Cybersecurity: Why is it important?

In todays society, almost all people use the internet and social media sites. Most people
access these sites with a cellphone, which creates an issue for the cyber world. The United States
and other countries around the world are trying to prevent hackers and other unauthorized users
to get into personal information. This is what developed cybersecurity, which is the protection of
networks, computers, programs and data, using processes, practices, and technology to prevent
cyber-attacks or unauthorized access. Cybersecurity issues can cover a various amount of
information. Most of the issues are covered under economic and personal context. The economic
issues of cyber security are, corporations information getting compromised. This is especially
important due to the vast amount of information found in the companies database. In addition to
that, the personal context of cybersecurity is an issue due to the personal information being
accessible and able to be transferred to someone else using a cyber hack. This may lead to
identity theft as well as unknown charges on ones credit card to unvisited places. With these
issues, the government has come up with some solutions to help protect information security.
Some solutions to these issues could be increased security of devices, increased knowledge on
what one might put out on the Internet and increased personal protection of ones records and
other personal information.

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I am looking to broaden my understanding of how cybersecurity can positively and
negatively affect our lives as well as to expand my knowledge on the issues of cyber security and
how people might enhance their security in their everyday lives. I have found that this has
strengthened my belief of the investment in new technology to help increase the technology of
cyber security.
The first source I looked at is Cyber Security: the New Business Priority. The article is
written by Mark Loveland and Mark Lobel (Loveland and Lobel). These researchers believe that
it is important for companies to realize the importance of information security, and the
information gathered by their corporations need to be safe guarded. They think this because in
the business field companies carry a lot of crucial information. In addition to that, they think
more companies need to be educated of the dangers of the critical information getting out. One
of the authors says that, with such high stakes, most would agree that information security
deserves full attention at the highest levels of the company. But the question I ask myself is why
they have not gotten the full attention of the executives of the company. Then, the article goes on
to discuss how in a recent survey, the executives were asked to give their information security
and how they would implant it. These results lead to an unprecedented decline. This makes me
think that the companies are not educated on the importance of information security, and how to
protect their information over the Internet. But the question is, how could the corporate
companies educate themselves and others? Is this the reason that cybersecurity has not gotten full
attention by the decision makers? The article talks about this. It says, it is crucial to increase the
role of information security and emphasize that it is not a just how that the technology works. In
addition to that, it is the ability of a certain individual to bring security issues to the attention of
the corporate officials and explain how it affects every business decision. The authors explain

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how there should be a linkage between security and company goals. They say the businesses
don't address how the updated technology puts their businesses at risk. But, how does it affect
their business decisions? This information affects their business decisions because if the critical
information gets into the wrong hands, the companies personal, business, along with financial
data (just to name a few) may be compromised. But how could the government help protect this
data?
Another source I found is the recent Apple vs. FBI case. This was written by Arjun
Kharpal, a writer for CNBC (Kharpal). He explains what happened between apple corporations
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The author writes that the United States Federal Bureau
was trying to access information on the Apple iPhone. The FBI asked Apple Inc., to write
software to help open the information on the iPhone, but Apple declined. Apple declined because
writing the software would open a key to opening millions of phone locks around the world.
Apple thinks that if they give the government this access, what would stop the FBI from opening
millions of other iPhones around the world. This makes me think that the government is not as
safe as it used to be with safeguarding information security as well as how much people put on
their phones. Is it really safe to use this updated technology? Shouldn't the government have laws
or bills in play to help protect the security of not only apples customers, but other internet users
as well?
The third source I looked at is the Cybersecurity Issues and Challenges Brief, which
talks about the government bills that have to do with cyber security (Fischer). This is written by
the Congressional Research Service. The Congressional Research Service discusses and debates
the possible bills running through the House of Representatives as well as the Congress. This is a
good source to have in explaining the governments side of the issues as well as the solutions that

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could be created to help improve this field. Congressional Research talks about the risks of three
factors: threats, vulnerability, and impact of its citizens around the United States. Reducing these
factors includes removing threats, confronting weaknesses, and reducing impacts. This made me
ask myself, what else the government could do to help with these issues. Congressional Research
goes on to discuss the privacy of individuals and how to categorize these threats. Most people
who gain access to a building could potentially hack into the system, implanting dangerous
software, which could disrupt the system completely. On the other hand, the government could
find a breach in their software and not know how it got there. This makes me wonder, why the
government has not brought cyber bills to help protect the lives of citizens. Some long term
challenges are the design of the information technology as well as adding cloud computing
throughout the government facilities. This briefing really showed me how little the government
does in the information security part of the government sector. The information in this article
really illustrated how the government could add more things to increase not only their own
security but the security of Americans as well. This creates an issue for cyber security because
more threats are arising. If the government doesnt have secure security now, then how will they
prepare for future attacks? This article really made me think of why the need of cyber analysis
rose in the first place. This issue with the government still makes me wonder how they can help
the everyday citizens of the United States.
The last source I looked at is The Problems Experts and Privacy Advocates Have with
the Senates Cybersecurity Bill, which was written by Abigail Tracy, a writer with Forbes
technology (Tracy). In the article, Tracy discusses the Senates Cybersecurity Bill. She says it
took four years to convince the Senate to pass a cybersecurity bill. This bill helps in the
prevention of cybercrime. But this bill creates problems for privacy issues. This makes me

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wonder, why it took the government so long to pass the bill. Was it the Privacy issue? The author
goes on to say that the bill requires government agencies, corporations and other organizations to
share any information that might lead to identifying other cybercriminals and other potential
threats, so they can be better equipped to protect and defend themselves. Tracy says that many
argue that cybercrime goes so fast that it is hard to tell other companies when it's happening, so
they can prepare to defend themselves. This made me wonder, what kinds of things the
government can do to slow these cybercriminals down, so the companies have time to react. The
article goes on to discuss the bill and how it is not discussed in terms of the private sector, or
how the information will be managed and broken up. A professor at Elon University School of
law says that the bill does not acknowledge the issues in cyber security because it is an
information sharing bill and people share information every day. This makes me wonder about
what other kinds of bills the government can put into play to help the companies share
information with each other. Then the article says, the Senate bill limits counter measure which is
to prevent from hacking back. This article helped me understand where the need of the
cybersecurity bill is. The cybersecurity bill could be important to protecting privacy of not only
personal internet users, but business users as well. So I ask myself, how citizens are supposed to
protect themselves if there's no Cybersecurity bill in place to hold back hackers and citizens
aren't allowed to hack back.
These articles are similar because they describe the importance of Cybersecurity and
provide different views on the same issue. The issue is Cybersecurity protection. The first article
describes the corporate view on the importance of information security. The second, describes
what happens when information is at risk. The third, describes the government addressing the
information risks. And finally the last, gives us an attempt of the creating a bill to help solve the

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issue of Cybersecurity protection. However, the federal government still hasn't found a way to
protect citizens data and protect their privacy at the same time.
The articles have listed some possible solutions. The first article says that corporations
should become more educated on the importance of information security. The second, says that
we could use these private companies like Apple Inc., to assist the FBI in their investigations of
cybercrime. The third article discusses the government risks of Cybersecurity and how to create
bills to slow, and possibly stop, these cyber criminals. And lastly, the fourth article talks about
the cybersecurity bill and how it can help slow down the cyber criminals. However, they still
don't have a working solution to this cyber issue. They all have a general idea that cyber security
is the issue, but what's the right way to fix the issue?
These four sources have helped shape my understanding of the importance of cyber
security. These sources made me think that Cybersecurity does not get enough attention from the
government. On the other hand, these articles made me think that they have come up with
possible solutions but none of the solutions were efficient enough to take care of the issue.
Governments, corporations, and consumers are all responsible for Cybersecurity. So, how will
the government protect its citizens of their own cyber data?

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Works Cited
Fischer, Eric A. "Cybersecurity Issues and Challenges: In Brief." Federation of American
Scientists. Congressional Research Services, 16 Dec. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2016.
Kharpal, Arjun. "Apple vs FBI: All You Need to Know." Cybersecurity. Consumer News and
Business Channel, 29 Mar. 2016.
Web. 26 Mar. 2016.
Loveland, Gary, and Mark Nobel. "Cybersecurity: The New Business Priority."
PricewaterhouseCoopers. Web. 26
Mar. 2016.
Tracy, Abigail. "The Problems Experts and Privacy Advocates Have with the Senate's Cyber
Security Bill." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.