Cyber Warfare and the Corporate Environment

INTRODUCTION: THE "BACK DOOR" IS OPEN AND CYBER-TERRORISTS ARE IN OUR MIDST As we inaugurate another issue, the Journal of Law and Cyber Warfare ("JLCW") takes the opportunity in this foreword to reflect on the recent developments in this area. We also present cyber-security data from hundreds of business entities across the world in a firstof- its-kind survey. Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 2001, mass shootings at schools and universities, and other highly-publicized acts...
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INTRODUCTION: THE "BACK DOOR" IS OPEN AND CYBER-TERRORISTS ARE IN OUR MIDST As we inaugurate another issue, the Journal of Law and Cyber Warfare ("JLCW") takes the opportunity in this foreword to reflect on the recent developments in this area. We also present cyber-security data from hundreds of business entities across the world in a firstof- its-kind survey. Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 2001, mass shootings at schools and universities, and other highly-publicized acts of domestic and international terrorism over the past two decades, the "front door" of corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions largely stood open. Most adults recall a time when any vehicle could pull up to the White House gates, and any person could walk into the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company, or through airplane security, with a water bottle and their shoes on. Sadly, but necessarily, that front door of physical security has closed. While the front door has closed, the back door is wide open. The era of Big Data has fully arrived, and information assets of immense financial, public, and personal value are stored and regularly transmitted by corporations, governments, and universities in a widely dispersed, hugely complex, and ever-changing labyrinth of computers, mobile devices, and telecommunications networks. Indeed, the current and future wealth and prosperity of developed nations rests largely on information assets rather than physical ones. Yet, as JLCW's Cyber Security Survey shows, there are shockingly few legal, regulatory, or private data-security standards and practices that have emerged to protect these enormously valuable assets, even as cybercrime has grown tremendously in sophistication and frequency. The back door is open and the cyberterrorists are in our midst. The editors of JLCW hope that this first-of-itskind survey will serve as a wake-up call to corporate, government, and academic leaders around the world to roll up their sleeves and get to work securing that back door, an effort we believe is essential to our future collective security and prosperity.