R.I. Cybersecurity Commission chair discusses cyber threats

PROVIDENCE – Scott E. DePasquale, chairman of the R.I. Cybersecurity Commission and CEO of Utilidata Inc., said cyber attacks are increasing at an “exponential rate.”
Citing data from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, DePasquale said there were nearly 43 million cyber incidents in 2014, a figure that doubled from the prior year.
Not only are attacks happening more frequently, but the hackers have become more sophisticated, making their hacks more effective.
Cyber attacks, he said, have been used to disrupt an organization’s productivity, make a statement (he pointed to the weekend attack in which a hacker alleged he broke into Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan’s AOL account) and for financial theft.
“Over the last couple of years incidents are up at really stunning rates,” DePasquale said Thursday. “The threat is evolving faster than our ability to address it.”
DePasquale said cyber hygiene has to be set from the top of an organization, and not relegated to just an IT department.
CEOs, he said, “need to make sure good cyber hygiene is followed.”
That means good password hygiene and thinking critically about using digital equipment, he said.
“You can’t treat it as high-end IT tech support. It needs to be ingrained in the mission of everything else we do,” DePasquale said.
DePasquale said one of the reasons he joined the governor’s cybersecurity task force was out of concern that the people perpetrating these crimes are evolving into well-funded terrorist groups – groups that could create widespread damage without ever setting foot on American soil. Noting the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, DePaquale said the government failed to perceive and imagine a threat of that magnitude.
“I think we sit at a similar boundary today,” DePasquale said. “We’re doing a lot of good things. … We’re not absentee landlords here, but I do worry about these statistics that say our budgets are not keeping up with the threat.”
Providence Business News is hosting a Cybersecurity Summit on Oct. 27 at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick featuring DePasquale as a speaker, as well as Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, who will open the summit.

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