Cybercrime is on the rise. What can we do to protect ourselves?
In just the last couple of months, cybercriminals have hacked several U.S. companies using different types of ransomware, paralyzing a petroleum pipeline, compromising a meat manufacturer, delaying ferry operations between Massachusetts’ mainland and Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and even targeting K-12 schools.
In recent weeks, top Biden officials have warned that ransom cyberattacks are getting worse. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland joined the chorus of concern adding, “we have to do everything we possibly can here,” he told reporters. “This is a very, very serious threat.”
As the U.S. begins to grapple with threats to cybersecurity, President Joe Biden prepares for his one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, where the topic of cybercrime is almost certain to be on the agenda.
“I’m going to make clear to President Putin that there are areas where we can cooperate,” Biden told reporters in Brussels. “If he chooses not to cooperate and acts in a way that he has in the past relative to cybersecurity and other activities, then we will respond, we will respond in kind.”
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Putin, for his part, has denied any involvement in the recent spate of ransomware attacks against the U.S. But whether Russian hackers or otherwise, what would happen if hackers decided to take on a global credit card company or a regional utility?
Wednesday, host Kerri Miller talked to two cybersecurity experts about threats, the risks of corporate hacking, what can be done to prevent them and what can be done to protect those who are most vulnerable.
Guests:
Lauren Zabierek is the executive director of the Cyber Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
Kim Zetter is an investigative journalist who covers privacy, computer security and national security. She is also author of the book “Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon.”
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