Facing the Hard Truth of Our Cyber Insecurity

What’s New: Recent cybersecurity incidents illustrate that, despite decades of awareness, the US remains systemically vulnerable to online threats.

Why This Matters: Indifference, paralysis, and distraction are causing the US to assume mounting risks that are more complex and more costly to mitigate.

Key Points:

• High-level concerns about American cybersecurity date back to 1983, when then-President Reagan — after watching the movie WarGames — asked his National Security Council, “Could something like this really happen?”1