It’s no secret that Americans have a major reliance on computers every day. It’s also no secret that cybersecurity is becoming a real problem for computer owners.
From information leaks on an international level to identity theft harming individuals, a clear solution to cyberattacks may seem impossible to find.
The solution to cybersecurity is not impossible, but it isn’t going to be found anytime soon, said Bill Cheswick, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, Friday afternoon during a speech at the Maurer School of Law.
“It’s pretty bad out there, and it may get worse,” Cheswick said. “Whether we are at peak awfulness or not, I’m not gonna make a prediction.”
A significant portion of the talk focused on the technical aspects of developing increasingly advanced security.
Cheswick expressed frustration with how easily it seems hackers can access distant machines. He said in an ideal world, a hacker could not corrupt a machine unless he or she were in the room with it.
Cheswick addressed those in the crowd who plan on becoming programmers with his concerns that a new, more foolproof coding language needs to be developed.
He especially emphasized that languages such as C are not good for security. C is a programming language that was first developed in 1972 and is still in use. C and languages like it are not entirely error-free and need improvement, Cheswick said.
“My interests — I’m trying to go into computer science — are either programming language or security,” Ph.D. student Derrick Baines said. “Other people have the same ideas I have on C, which is that it’s horrible, and I don’t know why we still have it.”
With all the discourse on how ineffective cybersecurity is, Cheswick made sure to encourage future computer science professionals in the room to look forward to how time will hopefully develop computer engineering.
He said like every great innovation, computers will need to evolve technologically to make them safer. Computers and the internet are, in Cheswick’s opinion, still in the it-works phase.
To emphasize this point, he explained to the crowd that the Model T was amazing at first simply because it worked. Modern cars are much more advanced and much safer.
“We are in the Model T stage of computing,” Cheswick said.
Computers and information safety are very new concepts and areas of study, Cheswick said.
Computer technology has evolved with no signs of slowing down.
With this comes the promise of newer, more advanced computer functioning and the need for more security.
During his presentation, one of the slide headers seemed to sum up the talk in its entirety: “I can’t emphasize enough the effects of time.”
