U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, spoke at a Legislative luncheon at Luby's Thursday on the topic of cyber security in honor of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

Thornberry serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Speaker of the House John Boehner asked Thornberry to lead an initiative on cybersecurity, centered on Congress's efforts to fight the expanding national security and economic threat.

Thornberry explained the issue is a challenging one because it cuts across many jurisdictions and Congress is not able to do much for defense because of new hurdles that present themselves daily.

He also pointed out that 85 to 90 percent of efforts at protection are in the private sector, making it hard to determine when and where the government should step up cyber security defense.

"The military said it's a new domain of warfare," Thornberry said.

However, the House provided a framework from which they will begin to operate to pass legislation over the coming months. The information is available on Thornberry's website under the cyber security tab.

Thornberry had three reasons why we should care about cyber security:

■ National Security: Our laws are not up to date to prevent many of the attacks that happen daily.

"The bad guys are getting better so much faster than the defense is. Our laws are so out dated, not keeping up with the way the threat is changing that the gap between the threat and our ability to deal with the threat is growing so fast, military people say this is the No. 1 thing that keeps them up at night," Thornberry said.

The military is dependent upon the Internet, and its security needs to be taken under control.

■ Economic Security: People are stealing intellectual property from businesses daily. Hackers will steal American ideas for a new business through a personal computer and turn around and use their idea to create their own products in other countries like China and Russia, Thornberry said.

"Every single day as intellectual property is stolen from the U.S., jobs are stolen from the U.S. American jobs come from American ideas, and people are being ripped off," he said.

■ Self Interest: Cyber security will effect everyone's bottom line because of liabilities. Thornberry said large, sophisticated companies like Google, Bank of America and Lockheed Martin have all recently announced that they have had cyber attacks, and there are many more that have been attacked that don't even know about it.

"The government is not going to solve it all. Nor will we solve it all just as individuals," he said.

We will have to work together to solve our cyber security problems, he said.

Pat Foster, executive director of public policy at AT&T, presented a power point presentation at the luncheon.

Foster explained that the Internet's growth and our dependency on it increases our vulnerability. He said there are a wide variety of threats that continue to grow more intelligent.

Attacks come in many different forms, such as trojan viruses, spam, pfarming and pfishing scams, and even malware on flash drives. Foster said attacks can also come in the form of Botnets, a network of computers used to hack others. A cyber criminal can launch a Botnet attack from a remote location — there are thousands globally — and infect your computer without you even knowing it, including taking down servers or large business networks or websites.

"Effective cyber security takes a village. Everyone ... plays a role, and it's a shared responsibility," Foster said.

He pointed out that simple precautions like anti-virus and spyware software could greatly reduce a person's risk of being attacked because the hacker looks for a soft spot that's easy to get to rather than a computer that has protection.

Two websites, staysafeonline.org and stopthinkconnect.com, provide some simple tips and steps that everyone should take to protect themselves from cyber attacks. Foster said they highlight having a "clean machine," or a current, up-to-date system and protect your devices. Think before you act. Stop and think before you download something or open an email that may contain a virus.

Thornberry said the Internet can never be truly regulated by the government because it moves too fast, and predators will always find a way around it.

"We have to do a better job as a country understanding this threat," he said.

Thornberry said he hopes if one thing was taken away from the presentation Thursday, it was self interest and being protected.

"Hopefully we can start some conversations that will increase awareness and improve our cyber security. If we can take something like that across the country, it would be a significant step forward," he said.

The luncheon was co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Wichita Falls and The Chamber of Commerce.

As first appeared on October 21, 2011.  http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2011/oct/21/official-speaks-on-cyber-security/