Hayden: Hackers Force Internet Users to Learn Self-Defense | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 11, 2010

PBS has a seven-minute interview with former NSA and CIA Director (and former guest of Syracuse University) General Michael Hayden.

 The entire transcipt is available at the PBS site.  Some key points for us:

SPENCER MICHELS: General, there is the debate going on in this countras to how serious the threat of a cyber-attack is. Some people say it's really serious. Others say, well, it's really not war and so forth.

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN: Right.

SPENCER MICHELS: Where do you come down on that issue?

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN: I'm reluctant to use the word war. I know some of my good friends who know this very well use that phrase.

Here is how I would choose to describe it. We have created this new domain, this new space called cyber, and, frankly, it's lawless. There are no natural technical barriers up there to protect information. That's why all of us are — kind of have to assume a personal responsibility for firewalls. I mean, when was the last time any of us have been asked to defend ourselves personally in any other space except the cyber-space?

SPENCER MICHELS: But is there a serious threat? And what is it?

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN: Because it is so anarchic, there are a variety of actors out there in this space that don't have your best interests at heart.

There are state actors out there who are interested in stealing either state secrets or industrial secrets.

via www.pbs.org

Also the General notes exactly the type of interdisciplinary work we intend to do later this week:

SPENCER MICHELS: This is a very technical issue. Do you think that policy-makers who aren't up to speed technically can actually make policy about this?

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN: Policy-makers can. Are they there yet? Probably not, some of them certainly not.

And that's really the issue. The technology and the operational art of this thing in cyberspace is way beyond any of the policy lines that we have even begun to think about. Policy has to catch up. And that's going to take a lot of work and a lot of conversations between tech-savvy people and policy-smart people.