Cybersecurity Enhancement Act Essay

In today's society, you are always being watched. The USA PATRIOT Act wants it to stay that way. According to Chris Plante in, "A Short, Crucial Explanation of the USA PATRIOT Act and USA Freedom Act," the USA PATRIOT Act, or the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, creates an, "[...] expansion of government power pertaining to domestic surveillance, law enforcement, and border security." (The Verge). The USA PATRIOT Act allows increased spying on citizens in the United States in order to decrease crime and terrorism. The Patriot Act Poll Results via ISideWith tell a story of a lack of understanding about the USA PATRIOT Act, however, with approximately 55% of Americans supporting the act. However, despite the belief it is a well-regulated, necessary act, the USA PATRIOT Act must be repealed due to the abuses the act allows, the violations of citizens' rights, and the inefficiency of the act in preventing crime and terrorism.

With good intentions, the Patriot Act allows the government to pry into Americans' lives through computer and phone records as well as credit and banking history (Source 5). This oversteps the U.S. Constitution as the First and Fourth Amendment were created to give citizens freedom and the right to deny search and seizure

The most recents detections of how cyber warfare is inevitably coming was the accusations of Russia hacking the the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email’s releasing damaging evidence against them which ultimately lead to Donald Trump being named the President of The United States (Diamond, 2016). The effects of cyber warfare have leaked over in to televise series, forming shows such as CSI cyber, and the gaming world, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. Neglect regarding cyber security can: undermine the reputation of both the government and elected officials; force unacceptable expenditures associated with the cost of cleaning up after security breaches; cripple governments' abilities to respond to a wide variety of homeland security emergency situations or recover from natural or man-made threats; and disable elected officials' ability to govern (Lohrmann, 2010). Classified information such as overseas operators and attacks, missile locations, response plans and weaknesses, and much more cripples America’s ability to defend itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. To combat cyber terrorism is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. In an article titled “Why Cybersecurity Information Sharing Is A Positive Step for Online Security” it is discussed that under CISA, the Department of Homeland security will have more responsibility for domestic cybersecurity. CISA’s fundamental purpose is to better enable cybersecurity information to be shared between the private and public sectors (2016). The sharing of threat information between public and private sectors can give the the United States a head start by allowing them to share information rapidly and more often to combat enemy threats while still providing safety for privacy and civil

The United States government changed the face of computer and internet use when it signed the USA Patriot Act on October 26, 2001. This act was created in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11 that same year. Many people believe that this act is a good thing and will help in defense against any future attacks. What most people do not know, however, is the effect of this act on the more general public. This includes individual people, public libraries, colleges and universities, and even trucking or hauling companies.

The Patriot Act was signed into law on October 26, 2001 by President George W. Bush. The act expanded the surveillance capability of both domestic law enforcement and international intelligence agencies. When this law was passed it was under the assumption “to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes” (The USA Patriot). The Patriot Act has given the government the power to spy on the average American through monitoring phone records and calls, gaining banking and credit information, and even track a person’s internet activity. This is an unbelievable amount of power intelligence agencies wield all under the umbrella of national security. This power has gone too far, is unjustified, unconstitutional, and infringes on the privacy of the

In today’s world technology has evolved to the point where a large amount of information is stored in cyberspace. It is because of this type of storage people around the world have an easier time at accessing information than ever before. The time before the late 20th century gathering information was long and tedious to get a book that the library did not own would take at least a couple of weeks depending on the time period or it may not have been possible to obtain that book. But now people can access a vast amount of information in a matter of minutes. Example, in modern times if someone wanted to know about a different culture they could simple look up the information on a computer or any device that had access to

The Patriot Act was hastily passed just a month later October and it severely limited the privacy of Americans and gave unprecedented power to the government and private agencies to track innocent Americans, turning regular citizens into suspects.5 In addition, the great technological evolution and emerged of social media that occurred round the same time, and shortly thereafter, created the perfect storm for the emergence of the largely unregulated surveillance society that we live in today.6 The result is digitization of people’s personal and professional lives so that every single digital trace that people leave can be identified, stored, and aggregated to constitute a composite sketch of ourselves and its only getting worse. In 2008, passed the FISA Amendments Act, which expands the government’s authority to monitor Americans’ international communications, in addition to domestic communications.7 In short, after 9/11 the U.S is left with a national surveillance state, in which “the proliferation of government technology and bureaucracies that are able to acquire vast and detailed amounts of digital information about individuals with minimal or no judicial supervision and often in complete secrecy,” giving the government and corporations with access to the data that the government compiles the ability to single

Shortly after the horrendous violations of human rights by the Nazi’s, in 1949 the Geneva Convention was created. This fourth treaty was established to create the rules and regulations of what is expectable in times of warfare. It gives protection to civilians in times when war tares families and countries apart. President Obama speaking on the importance of the fourth Geneva Convention stated, “We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend…And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard” (“President”). Today Americans face a new type of conflict, one that many consider as the fifth breed of warfare, and answers by the name cyber warfare (“Threat”). Peculiarly, cyber

Most nations today fear terror attacks that include bombing use of reinforcements like machines guns and other firearms. This is because terror attacks most of the times leave many people dead and others disabled while others are left without families. However, there is another attack today in many nations that can be destructive like a terror attack and this is the cyber-attack and threats. Cyber-attacks can be responsible for large mass destructions by making all systems connected to cyber networks fail to work (Rhodes 20). An example is the Morris worm that affected the world cyber infrastructures and caused them to slow down to a position of being impractical. Therefore, as a result of these cyber-attacks resources are being established and designed to help counter the attacks.

By way of illustration, advancements in recent years indicate that cyberspace in particular is becoming a viable theater of both international and political conflicts. Because of this, the possibility of widespread ambivalences - fought in cyberspace - continues to rise. And with digital warfare capabilities under current development, it is therefore necessary to understand two basic paramount political debates: Should there be an international treaty on cyberwarfare? And is it important to explain cyber warfare between states in the context of both domestic and international affairs; from a legal-political perspective? With that being said, cyberspace is everywhere (i.e. in today’s world) presenting significant implications for both global economic activity and also for international politics.

The Federal Government needs to create information systems which are more effective shielded systems to protect their assets and resources at home. The foundation of any mandated cybersecurity strategies that secure our nation national security must incorporate worldwide or state local threats whether targeted toward the federal government or the private sector forces. The OPM breach highlighted the insufficient and inconsistence security approaches the federal government has already used in modernizing the existing cybersecurity policies. There is a requirement for the United States government to institute polices that would incorporate and implement new government cybersecurity structures and centralized the protection of their assets to avert future breaches (Source). Examining the inadequacies in the current national cybersecurity policies and regulations is disappointing as OPM choice to implement these mechanisms and the current authoritative propositions to cybersecurity must change immediately. It was reported that OPM only spent $2 million in 2015 to avert pernicious digital assaults, while the Department of Agriculture spent $39 million. The Department of Commerce, Department of Education, and Department of Labor likewise invested more money in cybersecurity resources than the Office of Personnel Management. The Small Business Administration devoted a similar amount into cybersecurity to recognizing, examining, and alleviate any cyber breaches as OPM, however

The branches of the military, for a couple generations, have always been the Army, Navy, Air force, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard; however, in an ever evolving digital world, the notion that outer space would be the next military front is being rapidly replaced by the idea that cyber space will be the next arms race. The United States has been defending attacks on their infrastructure day after day, night after night, when one hacker on one side of the world sleeps, another takes their place to attempt to compromise the US government. The motives may range from a political ‘hacktivist’ trying to prove a point, to an economic spy, trying to gain a competitive edge on its more upstart rivals, to an attempt to control the United States

What would happen if we did not have the Cybersecurity Act? If we did not have cybersecurity protection then hackers would easily be able to get important information that we need to protect ourselves, and the country, if there were to be very important information leaked to either cyber-criminals, terrorists or hackers then multiple people or America itself may be in trouble. Many businesses, trade groups, government officials, and civil liberty groups will be protected by the Cybersecurity Act, also it gives people, the government, and money more privacy then they have already. The overall goal of CISA (Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act) is to improve information sharing in the hopes of preventing cyber-attacks

Internet use has skyrocketed since 2000 to over 2.4 billion users worldwide, with 70% of those users logging on every day (The Culturist, 2013).These days it takes merely minutes for news to travel around the globe. Our airwaves are filled with tiny nuggets of information whooshing past us undetected; that is, until it is detected. In the 21st century, cyber security is an international issue. The threat of cyber warfare is very real and would be devastating beyond any conventional weapon imaginable. With the entire globe becoming more interconnected, an attack on online infrastructure could ground airplanes, control information access, hijack nuclear facilities, and perhaps most terrifyingly, bring the global economy to a

Every state in the nation should have a comprehensive IT security policy due to the “growing array of state and non-state actors are compromising, stealing, changing, or destroying information and could cause critical disruptions to U.S. systems” ("Cyberspace policy RevIew", 2016). Because of “ the dual challenge of maintaining an environment that promotes efficiency, innovation, economic prosperity, and free trade while also promoting safety, security, civil liberties, and privacy rights” ("Cyberspace policy RevIew", 2016). It is the responsibility of state and the federal government “ to address strategic vulnerabilities in cyberspace and ensure that the United States and the world realize the full potential of the information technology revolution” ("Cyberspace policy RevIew", 2016).