We are producing TWO episodes this week, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday.
On Thursday, August 20 at 4:00 pm US-EDT, we present the seventeenth LIVE episode of the new LearningRevolution.com weekly interview series, REINVENTING SCHOOL. If you miss the LIVE show, we'll post the recorded version early next week.
This week, REINVENTING SCHOOL considers a serious technology threat to (a) our sanity; (b) our business and industry; and (c) our schools. Could a giant cyberattack disrupt or even disable our access to the internet? (How would we do distance learning with no internet?) Is our national power grid at risk? What happens if a cyberattack strikes in the midst of the pandemic? Are we thinking about any of this clearly? For clear and rational answers, we look authors and experts who presented the Solarium Cyberspace Commission report mandated by the U.S. Congress (see NY Times article)
- “The U.S. government is currently not designed to act with the speed and agility necessary to defend the country in cyberspace,” the final report of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission concludes. “We must get faster and smarter, improving the government’s ability to organize concurrent, continuous and collaborative efforts to build resilience, respond to cyber threats, and preserve military options that signal a capability and willingness to impose costs on adversaries.”
Our guest experts: Frank Cilluffo, Director, McCrary Institute for Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University, Suzanne Spaulding, Senior Adviser for Homeland Security and leads the Defending Democratic Institutions Project (DDI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Mark Montgomery, Executive Director, Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
Throughout her career, Ms. Spaulding has advised CEOs, boards, and government policymakers on how to manage complex security risks, across all industry sectors. At DHS, she led the development and implementation of national policies for strengthening the security and resilience of critical infrastructure against cyber and physical risks, including the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and key Presidential Directives and Executive Orders. She worked with industry to establish CEO-level coordinating councils in the electric and financial services sectors; chaired the federal government’s Aviation Cybersecurity Initiative to identify and address key cyber vulnerabilities in the national aviation system; and worked with many foreign governments on critical infrastructure and cybersecurity, including negotiating agreements with China and Israel. Ms. Spaulding also led security regulation of the chemical industry; biometrics and identity management; emergency communications; and the Federal Protective Service. As a member of the Board of Directors for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), Ms. Spaulding helped oversee the complex and unprecedented effort to deploy the first nation-wide broadband network for public safety. She is currently on the Board of Directors for Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) and for Girl Security; and Advisory Boards for Nozomi Networks, Splunk, MITRE, Harvard University’s Defending Digital Democracy project, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the Technology Law and Security Program at American University. She is a member of the Homeland Security Experts Group, sits on the Council of Executives for the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at Auburn University, and is on the faculty of the National Association of Corporate Directors. Following the attacks of 9/11, Ms. Spaulding worked with key critical infrastructure sectors as they reviewed their security posture and advised the CEOs of the Business Roundtable. In 2002, she was appointed by Governor Mark Warner of Virginia to the Secure Commonwealth Panel to advise the governor and the legislature regarding preparedness issues. She was managing partner of the Harbour Group; a principal in the Bingham Consulting Group; and of counsel to Bingham McCutchen, LLP. Ms. Spaulding has served in Republican and Democratic administrations and on both sides of the aisle in Congress. She was general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and minority staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. She also spent six years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she was Assistant General Counsel and legal adviser to the director’s Nonproliferation Center. She was a member of the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, which developed a bipartisan national cybersecurity strategy in advance of the 2008 election; executive director of the National Commission on Terrorism and the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction; and a consultant on the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. She is former chair of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security; founder of the Cybersecurity Legal Task Force; and was a member of Harvard University’s Long-Term Legal Strategy Project for Preserving Security and Democratic Freedoms in the War on Terror.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Cilluffo was appointed by President George W. Bush to the newly created Office of Homeland Security. There, he was involved in a wide range of homeland security and counterterrorism strategies, policy initiatives and served as a principal advisor to Director Tom Ridge, directing the president’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. Cilluffo then joined George Washington University in 2003, establishing the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security as a prominent nonpartisan "think and do tank" dedicated to building bridges between theory and practice to advance U.S. security. He served as an associate vice president where he led a number of national security and cybersecurity policy and research initiatives. He directed the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security and, with the School of Business, launched the university’s World Executive MBA in Cybersecurity program. Prior to his White House appointment, Cilluffo spent eight years in senior policy positions with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. There, he chaired or directed numerous committees and task forces on homeland defense, counterterrorism, and transnational organized crime, as well as information warfare and information assurance. He has published extensively in academic, law, business, and policy journals, as well as magazines and newspapers worldwide. His work has been published through ABC News, Foreign Policy, The Journal of International Security Affairs, The National Interest, Parameters, Politico, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Quarterly and The Washington Post. He currently serves on the editorial advisory board for Military and Strategic Affairs and has served as an on-air consultant for CBS News and as a reviewer for a number of publications and foundations.
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