Cybersecurity Summit Seeks to Subdue One of Government's Most Cumbersome Beasts

DETROIT — Citizens don’t care if cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated — they want their data safe and services kept operational. On Oct. 26, a crowd of about 800 gathered at the 2015 North American International Cyber Summit (NAICS) to listen to security experts, watch live exercises and compare notes on how to subdue one of government’s most cumbersome beasts.

The event was hosted by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who warned that today’s world is rife with cyberthreats that range from every room of the home to the most secure government facilities.

“Isn’t it wonderful what is going on with IT in our lives? We should be embracing it! We need to be equally responsible with respect to cybersecurity,” Snyder said. “[There are] 2.5 million cyberattacks on the state [of Michigan] every day.”

Maj. Gen. Reynold Hoover, director of intelligence for the chief of the National Guard Bureau, pointed out that millions of daily cyberattacks add up to 179 million blocked Web attacks annually.

Since the NAICS was founded four years ago, both the state of Michigan and the nation at large have matured in their understanding of the growing cyberthreat landscape and in their ability to handle those threats, but there’s still a lot of work left to do, said Michigan CIO David Behen.

“I would recommend that organizations, public, private, everything, really focus on that detection and response,” Behen said, referring to the four-part model of protection, detection, response and remediation. The infrastructure needs to be ready, he said, but the executive support and partners are critical for that, too.

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