As cyber threats become more complex around the world, security experts are discussing how to protect the United States from those attacks. Congressman David McKinley said right now, it is something that West Virginia is not prepared to handle.
From corporate to governmental threats, hackers are targeting any open portals they can.
Congressman McKinley said a large financial investment is what it will take to slow down the attacks.
“We just have to find the will of Congress to understand this is an investment into personal security into the future, and not react after someone hacks into a system and destroys it,” McKinley said.
McKinley hosted a forum on Thursday to discuss how West Virginia can protect itself.
Information Technology expert John Dancy said anyone in corporate business should be concerned about cyber security.
“It’s not kids sitting in basements trying to hack into you. It’s actually big business now. People are very motivated. They’re relentless in trying to get into your systems to get information, to get advantage and those kinds of things,” said Dancy, the Chief Information Officer of CSRA.
Dancy said the key to preventing these attacks is education.
“The most important protection you can have is a well-trained, cyber-aware workforce and I think the universities and community colleges and the types of training they can provide are critical to our future cyber security,” he said.
Pierpont Community and Technical College is capitalizing on that need.
“Being that cyber security is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the country, we’re trying to get our students into places where they can actually combat and learn the skills that they need to get in and immediately be effective in the industry and stop cyber attacks from happening,” said Matthew DeMaria, Program Coordinator at Pierpont.
Pierpont will offer training on mock break-ins, creating firewalls and attack prediction. Students will then pass on this knowledge to companies to protect themselves in the future.
