BYU-Hawaii students are in agreement with President Barack Obama after he told the private sector it must do more to stop cyber attacks aimed at the United States.“Everybody is online, and everybody is vulnerable,” President Obama stated during a White House cyber security summit at Stanford University. “Cyberspace is the new ‘Wild West.’” The conference held in Palo Alto, Calif. was just miles away from the headquarters of big Internet corporations like Facebook, Google and Intel, where President Obama addressed concerns like privacy and child protection.“This is awesome. It’s exactly what we as students need to hear,” said Mariah Adair, a freshman from Utah studying international cultural studies.In attendance were more than 1,500 business leaders, students, professors and reporters. The president stated that information about threats must be shared and responded to quickly, according to AP. Additionally, he signed an executive order aimed at making it easier for private firms to have access to classified information about cyber attacks.“What Obama is doing about cyber security is great,” said Lauren Anderson, an undeclared sophomore from Arizona. “I feel better knowing that the government actually cares about our cyber safety.”Additionally, President Obama stressed there would be oversight to ensure protection for privacy and civil liberties. The administration is requesting Congress to replace existing state laws with a nation-wide standard that would give companies 30 days to notify consumers if their personal information has been at risk or even compromised.However, some companies are not on the same page as the Obama Administration. The director of security solutions at cyber security firm Radware stated other CEOs of companies already believe they were badly burned by the government when Edward Snowden leaked intel.White House officials and business leaders from sectors such as utilities, health care and finance, also believe the threat is getting worse and no single institution can take it on, AP also reported.“It really is going to take a group effort for us to prevent security attacks,” said Foster May, a sophomore from South Africa studying information technology.Cyber attacks have been the cause of security breaches on companies like the mass retailer Target to entertainment companies like Sony Pictures. These attacks have caused companies to suffer costly data and have left nearly 85 million records exposed last year, according to AP.Uploaded Feb. 19, 2015.
Writer: Jared Roberts
