Ariz. can help define fledgling, enigmatic cybersecurity sector
Here’s the problem about cybersecurity: No one really knows what it entails. Part of that is the nature of the work. People hired to keep networks and sensitive data safe typically can’t talk about what they’re doing and for whom. The other part is a product of recent bad press: Who in his or her right mind would advocate growing an industry that, for all we know, is spying on innocent Americans?
Thus is the conundrum for those who see economic potential in this work. Major companies, such as Charles Schwab, Honeywell and American Express have cybersecurity teams based in the Valley.
Several firms that are basically paid to hack computer systems and root out vulnerabilities are located in Phoenix and Scottsdale.
Arizona State University and the University of Arizona have growing cybersecurity divisions, and the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe has one of the nation’s best cyberdefense training programs.
The Army’s Intelligence Center of Excellence, which trains soldiers in electronic warfare and cyberwar- fare, also is based at Fort Huachuca. Clearly, we’ve got assets. But the industry is so new, and information about it so sparse, that it’s tough to know how our assets stack up against those in other cities and states, much less what Arizona needs to do to attract more of them here.
Here’s what we do know. Cybersecurity is a major defense issue, and what we’ve read about Edward Snowden and the National Security Agency is just the tip of the iceberg. As technology advances, the potential for causing harm to others — by hacking the brains of a car, a water-treatment plant or even an insulin pump — is moving far beyond what we keep on computer servers.
Beyond that, we are collecting more and more data about every aspect of our lives. What’s relevant, what’s personal and what can be purged?
These issues aren’t about to go away. As much as we’d like to shut down some aspects of cybersecurity, there is no good way to close Pandora’s Internet-ready box.
Resolving these ethical dilemmas will be tough work, but it also poses tremendous opportunity for places like Arizona with robust aerospace and defense industries. The military is becoming increasingly reliant on companies that can secure and analyze reams of data.
Understanding cybersecurity could give new life to suppliers battered by sequestration.
It also will factor heavily in drone production, an area of opportunity for aerospace manufacturers. Remotely piloted vehicles not only need secure connections to fly safely, they need the ability to quickly make sense of the data they’re gathering.
What good, after all, are several hundred pages of temperature readings from a wildfire if those flying the drone over it must make a split-second decision to stop its advance?
This is an imprecise measurement, because not all computerscience workers are involved in cybersecurity. But Arizona has roughly 71,000 people working in computer and mathematical occupations, bringing home salaries nearly twice the state average.
Our state could gain a lot from this growing industry, if work begins now to define our piece of it.