The Cyber Defenses Of The United States - 887 Words

Private organizations in the United States come under attack weekly if not daily and their cyber defenses must be kept up to par otherwise there will be an extreme loss of information and resources. FBI director James Comey can be quoted as saying â€Å"There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who ve been hacked by the Chinese and those who don t know they ve been hacked by the Chinese† (Comey). Comey can also be quoted as having said that, â€Å"China was seeking to obtain information that s useful to them so they don t have to invent (Comey). This stolen information can be used against these companies when brokering a trade deal or even Chinese companies could begin manufacturing American goods illegally†¦show more content†¦Since the beginning of the internet, the government has been trying to keep its policies relevant with the evolving digital criminal world and in doing this has put in place policies that can be overly invasiv e. This method can have severe repercussions if it continues unchecked. A terrorist attack in California prompted the FBI to attempt to force the company Apple to create a hole in their software to allow the FBI to properly investigate (Settzel). By doing this, the company would be potentially violating the rights of millions of customers that depend and trust the company to hold their information securely. The policies that have been put into place only have effect on American based companies because foreign companies do not have to adhere to many of these overreaching statutes. Therefore many consumers are seeking their products elsewhere such as the Norwegian based Runbox email service. â€Å"Runbox, a small Norwegian company that offers secure email service, reported a 34 percent jump in customers since June 2013. Runbox markets itself as a safer email and webhosting provider for both individual and commercial customers, promising that it â€Å"will never disclose any user d ata unauthorized, track your usage, or display any advertisements.†55 Since the NSA revelations, the company has touted its privacy-centric design and the fact that its servers are located in Norway as a competitive advantage† (NewAmerica). Also, some large companies have seen a