Chris Inglis, National Cyber Director (NCD), for the Executive Office of the President (EOP) explained how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to show how information sharing can play a key and vital role in cybersecurity.
Inglis explained this phenomenon while speaking to a full audience at the Cybersecurity Summit event hosted by Billington Cybersecurity on September 7.
“I think the lessons of information sharing in the last year or so is that not only is it important, but it works. And I would point to the Ukrainian event, that abomination the Russians perpetrated on the Ukrainian people is a case in point,” said Inglis.
“There is a cyber component to that, and I think very well publicized was that the U.S. government and other governments had possession of what I would call strategic warning, meaning a sense as to what might be the targets of interest if there were to be a cyberattack,” said Inglis.
Another key action that Inglis stressed was the importance of information sharing with American allies not only sharing at the highest levels but also sharing at the lowest was also vital to cybersecurity.
“I would say share information at the lowest possible level, not only at the highest possible level and it defeats so many of the problems we typically had, if you follow that strategy share at the lowest possible level,” said Inglis. “You’re finding that you can put stories together that no one of you could have discerned, but you also solve a set of decision problems.”
Inglis ended his session by explaining how we need to be mindful of cybersecurity not for cybersecurity’s sake but understanding how it can be useful to our everyday life.
“We need to be serious about our cyber aspirations, not because of cyber but because of what we want to do with that. And we are serious about that. We need to make sure that all of us understand what our contribution to that should be,” said Inglis
