Center for a New American Security

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Washington, D.C., May 31, 2011 — Washington, D.C., May 31, 2011 – The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released today a comprehensive report that offers policymakers and private sector leaders actionable recommendations to strengthen America’s cyber security.

America’s Cyber Future: Security and Prosperity in the Information Age, edited by CNAS authors Kristin M. Lord and Travis Sharp and co-chaired by Robert Kahn, Mike McConnell, Joseph S. Nye Jr. and Peter Schwartz, includes 14 chapters by renowned experts on the most pertinent topics in cyber security: cyber war; the role of non-state actors; accessing the most innovative cyber security technologies; tensions between privacy and cyber security; separating fact from hype; and international norms and governance.

Download America’s Cyber Future: Security and Prosperity in the Information Age here.

In America’s Cyber Future, CNAS Vice President and Director of Studies Kristin M. Lord and Bacevich Fellow Travis Sharp argue that America’s growing dependence on cyberspace has created new vulnerabilities that are being exploited as fast as or faster than the nation can respond. Cyber attacks can cause economic damage, physical destruction, and even the loss of human life. They constitute a serious challenge to U.S. national security and demand greater attention from American leaders.
 
“The challenge is to prepare for cyber threats with insight, diligence and rigor, while avoiding what the 9/11 Commission report termed failures of imagination,” write Lord and Sharp. “The nation’s security and prosperity are at stake. There is no time to waste.”

Contributors to the report include: Robert E. Kahn, Mike McConnell, Joseph S. Nye Jr., Peter Schwartz (co-chairs); Nova J. Daly, Nathaniel C. Fick, Martha Finnemore, Richard Fontaine, Daniel E. Geer Jr., David A. Gross, Jason Healey, James A. Lewis, Kristin M. Lord, M. Ethan Lucarelli, Thomas G. Mahnken, Gary McGraw, Roger H. Miksad, Greg Rattray, Will Rogers, Christopher M. Schroeder, and Travis Sharp.

Report co-author Kristin Lord will take questions about the report at the CNAS annual conference on Thursday, June 2, during a session on cyber security with: Ellen Nakashima, National Security Reporter, The Washington Post; Rand Beers, Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, Department of Homeland Security; Robert Butler, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, Department of Defense; and Max Kelly, Former Chief Security Officer, Facebook.

Find out more about the conference and register here. The conference will also be webcast live starting at 9:30 a.m. EST at www.cnas.org/live.