Role of the Government in Supporting the Emerging Cyber Security Approaches and Technologies

Emerging Cyber Security Technologies Coupled with Prioritized Research and Development: 10

The Role of the Federal Government in Supporting and Nurturing the Emerging Cybersecurity Approaches and Technologies. 11

13

References: 15

Introduction

The development of the internet is one of the most significant revolutionary advancement that ever happened in the history of humankind. Today, the world is highly dependent on open networks like the internet for the business transactions, commercial purposes, and government services to be realized. As a result, this had led to the speedy development of new information security problems and cyber threats, which are posing serious threats to our modern society. The increasing cyber threats represent a mounting risk to private, individual and public organizations. Therefore, to defend these groups against the rise of cyber-attacks, emerging cybersecurity technologies are necessary as a defensive mechanism. Despite there being various safeguards available, to curb advanced cyber threats, the private sector and the government are working together to reduce the global risk of cyber-attacks by developing new cybersecurity technologies.

Emerging cybersecurity technologies such as the Mobile Agent Technology and the Moving Target Defense are some of the most promising approaches to deal with cybersecurity threats. However, despite there being the above mentioned emerging cybersecurity technologies, it is an uphill task to develop them in a vacuum since these cyber-attacks have adverse effects in individuals, government corporations, private and public organizations. Therefore, it is vital for there to be an association of both individual, private, and public organizations to come up with the best technology to cyber defense with the support of the federal government.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity commonly referred to as Information technology Security focuses on ensuring that the computer network is secured and protected from intruders and hackers. With the increasing use of the internet, there has been an increase in intrusion to private and government resources and information and this is why it is essential to ensure that this information is secured and safeguarded. The most cybersecurity threats carried out by hackers include mobile threats, botnets, DDoS attacks, information phishing, and cryptographic attacks (Ericsson, 2010). Hackers will try to access networks, collect data illegally, and use the information for destruction. Therefore, both the government and private organizations should be ready to spend to ensure that their networks are secure and safe from cyber threats and attacks.

 Initially, cybersecurity was not a big to concern to the government as it is today because there was no internet and technology like mobile phones that people use to communicate. However, with the increasing use of the internet, cybersecurity has become a problem that needs to be solved to make the internet a safer place for usage for everyone. As a result, all private organizations have to partner with the federal government to support the development of new cyber security technologies that will help fight all cyber-related crimes against private organizations and against the government.

The Need for New Cybersecurity Technology

 Nowadays, large and well-resourced organizations, as well as governments, are getting hacked despite there being efforts to stop cyber-attacks from specialists all over the world. Due to the increase of cyber threats and attacks, there is an indication for the need of new and developed cyber security technologies to finally put an end to this menace because the existing technologies are either not working or are limited. The society cannot keep up with the increasing cyber security incidences and this call for new approaches and technologies to cyber issues (Jang-Jaccard & Nepal, 2014). Cyber usage has become an international marvel because no day passes by without an individual utilizing the internet for communication or even to perform a task. Our daily lives have shifted to the digital age, and this means individuals and companies should be protected while embracing the digital era of using the internet. The agenda for cyber security is necessary to avoid any security breaches and other cyber-attacks. Cyber security focuses on ensuring that cyber users are protected from cyber-attacks and threats from the hackers.

 Cyber criminals are becoming more intelligent, and they use the internet to gain access to private, individual, and government information and destroy it or they even use it for personal gains. In fact, the hackers are continually devising new hacking strategies to launch their attacks, which evokes the need for new defense mechanisms to safeguard data in both private and public organizations. Cybersecurity threats such as cyber harassment, intrusion, fraud, spam cause malicious threats to a network user, and this has to be handled with emerging cyber security technologies (Li, Shahidehpour, & Aminifar, 2017). Every day, new cyber threats and attacks are emerging as the hackers are constantly changing their attack strategies and this call for a transformation in cyber security technologies.

Emerging Cybersecurity Technologies

  As the digital age continues to grow, several people, private and public agencies are becoming more dependent on computers and the internet. It is apparent that the society today depends on the internet/cyberspace for many activities and this makes providing cyber security important. Increasing cyber-attacks represents a severe risk to individual privacy and the infrastructure. Therefore, it is vital to develop cyber security technologies to keep pace with the increasing cyber threats (Maitra & Madan, 2017). Nonetheless, finding a future technology to curb the problem of cyber threats and attacks have become one complex issue in the field and study of cyber security. This issue is intensified by the fact that most countries lack cohesive cyber security policies that could help put an end to this problem once and for all. In addition, it is worsened by the fact that the cyber-attacks security risks keep on changing and evolving quicker than expected each and every day. Therefore, to deal with the current cyber security issues, the advisory organizations have opted to use more adaptive and proactive approaches.

Over the years, researchers have been developing numerous technologies and approach to help organizations to be a step ahead of the cyber attackers by protecting their resources (Li, Shahidehpour, & Aminifar, 2017).  Most of these technologies are still in their initial stage of research and development that is why they are referred to as emerging technologies since they require more analysis and research to be proven and adopted. Nonetheless, there are some emerging technologies that are in their mature stages and ready for employment, for instance, the Mobile Agent Technology, the Moving Target Defense, and prioritized research. These two technologies are in use although still under research to come out with improved and advanced measures to completely curb cyber insecurities.

The Moving Target Defense

 The Moving Target Defense technology is one of the emerging cybersecurity technologies that although it is currently in use, it is still under development to get the best results in dealing with cyber security. The Moving Target Defense technology is a technology that morphs or changes the system to make the target unfamiliar to the hacker or rather to deceive the intruder (Park, Woo, Moon, & Choi, 2018). The main function of this technology is to construct a regularly changing system of parameters that bring a more complicated situation to any hacker trying to interfere with other people’s resources on the internet. In fact, Moving Target Defense technology works more efficiently with several electronic devices (Sengupta, 2017). This technology is being designed to make it difficult for attackers to exploit a vulnerable system by changing the system to deceive them. With the Moving Target Defense technology, a hacker will find it difficult to access any information from an organization because he/she will be forced to spend a lot of time trying to find a way to do it because complexity is added to the system. There are three main categories of the Moving Target Defense technology namely host level MTD, network level MTD, and application level MTD. The host level MTD changes the OS and host level resources, the configuration, and the naming thus making it difficult for the hacker to reach his/her desired information. On the other hand, the network level MTD changes the network topology which includes the hopping the IP, using extra open and closed ports and putting fake information available for the hackers to confuse them from finding confidential information. Lastly, there is the application level MTD where the application environment is continuously changed to deceive an intruder.

  An organization can use the Moving Target Defense technology to secure its data and resources by increasing the uncertainty and complexity of their resources for the attackers. The target of the attacker can continuously be moved or rather changed leaving the authorized codes running safely because automatically, the attacker will miss the mark. One of the real world examples of the Moving Target Defense technology utilization is by the US Department of Homeland Security. The Homeland security has recognized the underlying security threats and is now utilizing the moving target defense technology where they shift their attack surface to confuse the attackers.

The Advantages of the Moving Target Defense technology

The Moving Target Defense technology has a number of advantages as it protects an organization’s system from hackers. According to Connell, Menasce and Albanese, the MTD technology uses different paths to transfer data, and this makes it hard for an intruder to predict any vulnerability in the system (2017). The second advantage is that with MTD, data is segmented and stored and since it is broken down into different segments and encrypted in addition to being stored on different servers. This way it will be difficult for an intruder to reach and compromise an organization’s data and integrity (Connell, Menasce, & Albanese, 2017). Lastly, the Moving Target Defense technology is designed to adapt to the changing hacker trends, and this makes it easier to upgrade meaning it is affordable and cheap for any organization.

The Disadvantages of the Moving Target Defense technology

  One of the common disadvantages of this emerging technology is that is it not a “one size fit all system.” (Bagga & Hans, 2017). If an organization is using this technology, that firm should ensure that they make adjustments every time according to the specifications and needs especially when it needs an upgrade due to the changing hackers tactics. Secondly, this technology is complex, and it will take time for it to be widely accepted and used because it is a learning system. The technology has to learn every time because the hackers’ tactics are changing and developing every day, meaning the system has to progress too. The third disadvantage is that since the MTD system is automated, it might give false flags or rather block access to valuable information because it morphs automatically.

The Mobile Agent Technology

 The Mobile Agent Technology is another example of emerging cyber security technology that is being utilized by some organizations to secure their systems. However, despite being in use, this technology is still under research and development for it to be widely used. Introduced in the 1990s, the Mobile Agent Technology has been under research and development to ensure organizations secure their data and information. The Mobile Agent Technology offers autonomy, learning, and social ability as well as mobility (Bagga & Hans, 2017).

Advantages of the Mobile Agent Technology

The Mobile Agent Technology has several advantages including adding fault tolerance that helps in not leaving the network being used by a company vulnerable to failure or attackers. Secondly, MAT can distribute security workload to various networks. Thus, it has a better performance. The Mobile Agent Technology is designed to in a way that the monitors are the security tests are distributed all through an organizations network, and this makes it hard for an intruder to disable them or even hack the information on the network.

Disadvantages of the Mobile Agent Technology

Just like the advantages, the Mobile Agent Technology has a number of obstacles. One of the disadvantages is that this emerging cyber security technology is new and still under development for better results and so it might be prone to vulnerabilities that are yet to be discovered. MAT is still at the genesis stage, and it is still being researched on, and this means, as long as it is under development, there can be drawbacks on its use thus cyber threats and attacks.

Emerging Cyber Security Technologies Coupled with Prioritized Research and Development

            Finding the best cyber security technology has proved to be an uphill task for many researchers and organizations. It is evident that cyber systems have become a part of our everyday lives. The private sector has played an essential role in ensuring cyber security in the IT setup by developing new cyber security approaches and technologies. Unfortunately, the lack of scientific-based research and experimental methodologies in developing and testing these cyber security technologies has made cyber security an uphill task (Maitra & Madan, 2017). Nonetheless, the US Department of Homeland Security has been working and is still working on procedures for cyber security experimentation research to find the best cyber security technologies. Therefore, prioritized research together with the Mobile Agent Technology and the Moving Target Defense have been identified as the best emerging cyber security technologies that are to be researched and developed to improve cyber security. The Mobile Agent Technology and the Moving Target Defense together with prioritized research have led to limiting the cyber-attack vulnerabilities.

            Cybersecurity is not just a technology and business risk but a societal and government problem too. Gone are the days where individuals and organizations could just pass cyber security issues to the IT department, and they are solved.  According to Rodosek and Golling, everyone who uses the internet is exposed to numerous cyber threats and attacks if they do not manage their cyber security properly (2013). Hacking has become more sophisticated thus calling for more advanced cyber security approaches and technologies. With the Mobile Agent Technology and the Moving Target Defense technologies, companies and the government can now address the problem of cyber security. Cybersecurity is a team responsibility that requires the input of individuals, business, leaders, consumers, and the government.

The Role of the Federal Government in Supporting and Nurturing the Emerging Cyber Security Approaches and Technologies

  Many people and organizations have been affected by cybercriminals and terrorist threats and attacks, this has demanded the government to take part in executing high standards of cyber security to make everyone safe. The federal government has always played a critical role in dealing with cyber security issues by supporting emerging cyber security approaches and technologies (Block & Keller, 2015). It has substantially invested in the Mobile Agent Technology and the Moving Target Defense technology as emerging cyber security technologies by supporting and nurturing them to help solve cyber threats and attacks problems thus improving cyber security. In addition, the federal is working hand in hand with private sectors where they share information on the emerging cyber threats and attacks and jointly working together to eliminate the attacks.

The Federal government has invested in funding researchers to enable them to continue with their research to enhance emerging cyber security technologies such as the Mobile Agent Technology and the Moving Target Defense. The Federal government has provided the necessary funding to support and strengthen the emerging technologies.

Several stakeholders have questioned the federal government’s involvement in the development of cyber security technologies. Some groups of people are worried about the government’s responsibility in cyber security because they feel that this might lead to the violation of the First Amendment.  Therefore, the federal government investing in emerging cyber security technologies has its benefits and drawbacks because it depends on how much involved the federal government is in the development of the merging cyber security technologies.

It is apparent that the US government controls the entire infrastructure in the nation. This includes the communication system, the electric systems, and even the defense systems and they are all funded by the federal government, and the cyber security technologies are not an exception (Block & Keller, 2015). Some systems are run by private organizations, but at the end of the day, they still receive funding from the federal government. Therefore, just like several the other necessary infrastructure funded by the government, the funding, supporting, and nurturing of emerging cyber security approaches and technologies is necessary because neither private or public companies can operate on their own without support.

We should note that most cyber threats and attacks are always carried out against the government systems. The American government has been under numerous cyber threats and security breaches by various hackers. Therefore, as much as private and individual organizations are working on providing the best cyber security solutions through emerging cyber security technologies, they still need the support from the federal government to come up with the best solutions. The cyber security solutions will work for both the government and the private organizations and the overall basic infrastructure of the US. Hence, the private organizations have to work together with the federal government to ultimately deal with cyber threats and attacks in the United States.

Therefore, the support of the federal government in developing and nurturing emerging cyber security technologies is critical in dealing with cyber threats and attacks. Cyber security approaches and technologies require the patronage of the government, individual, and the private and public entities. Protecting the citizens has become progressively more critical for the US government as it draws most of its resources from the citizens and the private entities. Together with private entities, it will be easy to deal with criminals who use the internet technologies to hack into private information and data for selfish reasons.

Conclusion

With the increasing dependence on the internet in our everyday life, the topic of cyber security is gaining more importance with every passing hour. In fact, it has evolved to a complicated level making it difficult to deal with the problem. The interconnectivity of electronics has advanced over the years thus bringing up the problem cyber-attacks and threats. Nonetheless, there have been emerging technologies and approaches that are being developed to help private and public sectors to deal with the problem of cyber security by protecting their data and resources from intruders.  The most promising technologies are the Mobile Agent Technology, prioritized research, and the Moving Target Defense; however, each of the technologies as mentioned above has its advantages and disadvantages. The Moving Target Defense will require more time to develop and function properly while the Mobile Agent Technology is expensive but with the help of the government, these technologies can be realized, and it can help in solving the problem of cyber security.

Prioritized research, the Mobile Agent Technology, and the Moving Target Defense have been identified as the best-emerging technologies that should be developed to help deal with the increasing problem of cyber security. Nonetheless, among the three, the Moving Target Defense is the best choice because it is affordable and cheap to maintain in addition to being efficient. This technology is the best for all users because it makes it impossible for cyberspace intruders to guess the traffic of the network he/she is trying to interfere with. Since it is an emerging technology, it will take time for the government to implement the Moving Target Defense technology because there is the need for more research on the technology to confirm that it is the most suitable choice to be executed by the government to help solve the cyber security problems. Nonetheless, if the future practical results confirm the theoretical findings that the Moving Target Defense is the ideal choice to protect individual, private, public, and government resources from cyber threats and attacks, then it will be the best-emerging cyber security technology to improve cyber security. Overall, the Moving Target Defense, Prioritized research, and the Mobile Agent Technologies are necessary to guide the states’ cyber security strategy to curb cyber threats and attacks in the future. The achievements in cyber security around the world help both private and government sectors, and this is why the two have to work together in developing new technologies to curb cyber threats and attacks. 

References

Bagga, P., & Hans, R. (2017). Mobile Agents System Security: A Systematic Survey. ACM  Computing Surveys (CSUR), 50(5), 65.

Block, F. L., & Keller, M. R. (2015). State Of Innovation: The US Government’s Role in            Technology Development. Routledge.

Connell, W., Menascé, D. A., & Albanese, M. (2017, October). Performance Modeling of         Moving Target Defenses. In Proceedings of the 2017 Workshop on Moving Target Defense (pp. 53-63). ACM.

Ericsson, G. N. (2010). Cyber Security and Power System Communication—Essential Parts of A        Smart Grid Infrastructure. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 25(3), 1501-1507.

Jang-Jaccard, J., & Nepal, S. (2014). A Survey of Emerging Threats in Cyber security. Journal         of Computer and System Sciences, 80(5), 973-993.

Li, Z., Shahidehpour, M., & Aminifar, F. (2017). Cybersecurity in Distributed Power            Systems. Proceedings of the IEEE, 105(7), 1367-1388.

Maitra, S., & Madan, S. (2017). Intelligent Cyber Security Solutions through High Performance   Computing and Data Sciences: An Integrated Approach. IITM Journal of Management   and IT, 8(1), 3-9.

Rodosek, G. D., & Golling, M. (2013). Cyber Security: Challenges and Application Areas. In         Supply Chain Safety Management (pp. 179-197). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Sengupta, S. (2017, May). Moving Target Defense: A Symbiotic Framework for AI & Security.         In Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent      Systems (pp. 1861-1862). International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi        agent Systems.