The cyber security race continues to ramp up as more of the things we use every day depend on the Internet to function. As Robbie Harris reports, The National Security Agency has designated Virginia Tech to be a key player in the growing efforts to secure our systems from hacks and attacks.
Charles Clancy directs the Hume Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia Tech. He says that by 2020 there will be 50 Billion devices connected to the Internet. And they’re all going to need security.
That’s not to mention existing equipment running in our factories installed long before anyone ever heard the term cyber security.
Clancy says, “So now you’re taking equipment that was designed in the absence of cyber security and we’re hooking them to the Internet. That’s a recipe for disaster if you can’t figure out ways to protect industrial equipment that is increasingly connected to the Internet."
Drawing on its expertise in the field, Virginia Tech applied for and won a designation for excellence in cyber operations from the NSA, becoming the only university in the state and one of only 17 in the country to have it.
Clancy says it will offer students new research opportunities and job prospects. And it will open the door for more funding for the huge task t of buttoning up the Internet of things, factories and infrastructure.
