Here is the setup

 

I am taking an information security course with coursera.org.  I love to learn:) In the course, students had to view a TEDx talk from Alexander Kotouc.  Mr. Kotouc’s talk focused on his perspective of Mobility in the future.  Overall, it was not a bad talk, but there was one portion of the talk that really stood out to me.  It was where he described this tremendous transportation experience, it begins at minute 8:20 of the video.  Please listen to it, as it is a very cool thought.

So based on the video the instructor had us to respond to the following question on the discussion board.

 

Question:

What are some of the key areas that cybersecurity solutions need to address to ensure that businesses are safe?

 

My response: 

The biggest area that we need to provide solutions for with regards to cyber security is privacy.  The gentleman from the car company spoke about an amazing Utopian like transportation experience, where everyone shares, and we have alternative public transportation options via dormant private vehicles.  I must admit that it sounded magnificent.  That is until I began to think about the consequences of such imagery becoming a reality.  It would require us to open our private worlds up even more and thus giving greater exposure of our private lives to the public – think social media on steroids.  That in and of itself is in direct conflict with cybersecurity.  Yet, everyday there is a new app that gives people an opportunity to share more personal information about themselves the provides a larger doorway to be attacked.  At some point we, as a society, will need to decide what do we want, security or the amount of openness that is required to experience that future day Utopia that the gentleman described in his TEDx talk.

 

I know everything is not black and white, but the problem we are having in the world of cybersecurity is that we are trying to play the middle.  Now, I will admit that playing the middle will keep cybersecurity firms in business, but will you ever be able to assure someone that their information and privacy are safe?  Maybe the best option is to treat your security and privacy like the a group of people being chased by a bear.  That is, I don’t need to be the fastest in the group, I just need to be faster than the slowest person in the group.  In cybersecurity terms, I don’t need to be the most secure, I just need to be more secure than my least secure neighbor.