With the widespread applicability of cyberspace in today’s world, malefic activities like hacking, cracking or other malicious use of cyberspace have become more sophisticated and so critical that, absent a proper and organized plan to protect against such activities, overcoming them is impossible.

Today cybersecurity is one of the prime concerns for any organization, whether governmental or private sector; and for the sake of security and safety, it may be considered of national importance for a country. Many components of cyberspace are disreputable and therefore vulnerable to an expanding range of attacks by a spectrum of hackers, criminals, terrorists, and state actors. For example, both government agencies as well as private sector companies, irrespective of their size and nature, may suffer from cyber thefts, cyber vandalism and attacks like denial-of-service or other service-related attacks, since they incorporate sensitive information. Many of a nation’s critical infrastructures, like the electric power grid, air traffic control system, financial systems, and communication networks, depend extensively on information technology for their operation. Nowadays, threats posed by the vulnerabilities of information technology and its malicious use have increased along with technological advancements. Following the infamous September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, the importance of maintaining a properly fashioned security environment has been realized in light of increased cyber espionage directed at private companies and government agencies. National policy makers have become increasingly concerned that adversaries backed by considerable resources will attempt to exploit cyber vulnerabilities in the critical infrastructure, thereby inflicting substantial harm on a nation.

Numerous policy proposals have been suggested in the past and a number of bills have been introduced to tackle the challenges of cybersecurity. Although the larger public discourse sometimes treats the topic of cybersecurity as a new one, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council has extensively recognized cybersecurity as being a major challenge for public policy. Therefore, for over more than two decades the CSTB has offered a wealth of information on practical measures, technical and nontechnical challenges, as well as potential policy concerning cybersecurity. Drawing on past insights developed in the body of work of the CSTB, a committee has produced a report entitled Cybersecurity Primer: Leveraging Two Decades of National Academies Work, which acts as a concise primer on the fundamentals of cybersecurity and the nexus between cybersecurity and public policy.

Full Professor Valentina E. Balas
Department of Automatics and Applied Software Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania