Of the many topics President Obama was expected to address head-on in the opening stage of his presidency, only political and industry insiders could have guessed that cybersecurity would be one. Surely, President Obama’s self designated mandate upon taking office – “Change” – pertained to the tanking global economy and the prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attention to those gargantuan problems, the American public might have thought, should prevent talk of just about anything else.
Nevertheless, in late May 2009, barely four months after taking his presidential oath, Obama delivered a blunt, urgent speech on securing our nation’s cybersecurity network.1 Partially spurred into action after becoming a victim of a cyberattack himself, President Obama stated that cyberattacks constitute “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.” …
