Another High Profile Cyber Breach Likely, How Will Trump Respond?

Posted: January 10th, 2017

By Mike Patterson

Mike Patterson is the vice president of Strategy for Rook Security, an Indianapolis-based provider of global IT security solutions that monitors, detects, and remediates cybersecurity threats worldwide. Patterson manages Rook Security's company strategic direction, new market selection, investor relations, and strategic partnerships. He is a thought leader in the emerging cyber insurance and sports security sectors, and specializes in M&A security policy and procedures.

Will the U.S. government see a large-scale breach in 2017? Common sense would say yes, whether by size, like the Office of Personnel Management, suspicion, like the Democratic National Committee, or by prestige, like CIA director John Brennan’s email. After all, our government is monumental in size and scope; has a humongous digital attack surface; is targeted aggressively from all over the world, all the time; has to play perfect defense; and has few agencies that can properly detect and respond to the best cyber weapons and attackers in the world.

The list of organizations that fall victim to cyber attacks seemingly grows longer each year, so this should not come as a surprise. What will be interesting is how the new White House administration would actually respond when it takes place on their watch.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+