Presidential Race Proves Importance of Cybersecurity

Election season is finally coming to a close. Regardless of who you’re voting for, I’m pretty sure you’re as ready to be done with debates and political ads as I am. There have been endless arguments about which side is right on a range of issues. But, there is one issue that has come up across both parties and in multiple formats, that we can all agree on – cybersecurity is a crucial effort that needs our attention, no matter who we are or what business we’re in. These candidates can, and should, make a concerted effort to set the bar for higher data security standards.

DarkSecurity tells us more:

Both Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump this year each have had firsthand experiences at the hands of hackers… Neither candidate has demonstrated savvy deployment of security of their own systems: Clinton has been under fire for her use of a personal email server and account while serving as Secretary of State, while security researchers revealed that Trump’s own email servers used the outdated and no longer-supported Microsoft Windows 2003 Server software, as well as a flaw in his campaign’s public website that left intern resumes exposed.

But in a year when cybersecurity has been a major mainstream newsmaker and the threat of more cyberattacks from Russia loom over the Presidential election, both Clinton and Trump have an opportunity to spin their missteps and real-world data breach experiences into fresh personal perspectives on lessons learned in the need for stronger security posture for the US government, private industry, and private citizens, security experts say.

“If they get religion on this topic, they could be poster children for all of us in becoming more” security-savvy, says Jack Danahy, co-founder and CTO of Barkly, a security software vendor. Clinton’s use of a private email server, as well as former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s use of personal email during his tenure, reflect the infamous security tradeoff theme of “convenience versus security,” Danahy says.

“It’s important that they both appreciate cybersecurity as a major factor in policy-making,” says Michael Marriott, a research analyst with Digital Shadows. “They have to show an appreciation of the importance of the issue. But it’s such a fast-moving area,” which makes that challenging for politicians to keep up with, he notes.