During this year’s State of the Union speech, President Obama focused on the economy and middle-class workers, but he piqued bi-partisan attention when he spoke of national security issues the U.S. must address in the future – specifically, cybersecurity. He urged Congress to pass legislation that better meets the evolving threat of cyber-attacks or cyber security, identity theft, and protecting our children's privacy. One piece of legislation, the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act, requires companies to tell consumers within 30 days if their data has been hacked. The Student Digital Privacy Act would prohibit companies from selling student data to third parties. In the President’s words: “If we don't act, we'll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable.” How vulnerable? Consider that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says his bank spends upward of $250 million (and growing) on data security each year. One industry; one bank. But it speaks volumes about the value of protecting critical personal and business information. That’s where #CyberWarriors come into play. These information security specialists are charged with planning and implementing defenses to protect computer networks and systems. Some specialists, known as intrusion detection analysts, monitor systems on an ongoing basis to ensure hackers are not getting in. Others, such as certified ethical hackers, intentionally try to break into networks to expose areas that criminal hackers might exploit in order that effective defenses can be built to stop them. They’re America’s first line of defense against cyber-attacks. Do you want to join them?
