Major Challenge for Engineering: Securing Cyberspace

An Analytical Report

Sultan Alhudhainah
New Mexico State University

Major Challenge for Engineering: Securing Cyberspace

An Analytical Report

INTRODUCTION

Securing cyberspace is a number one problem for engineering professionals. Serious breaches
take place within cyberspace everyday placing millions of innocent people at-risk for things such
as identify theft. Breaches in cyberspace have the potential to negatively impact personal
privacy and the privacy of governments and national security. Because of the digital age,
technology, and the Internet, information sharing has become a way of life for most everyone in
the 21st Century; therefore, securing cyberspace is more important than ever. Since a multitude
of entities look to the engineer for excellent problem-solving, entities have put pressure on
engineers to find innovative solutions for securing cyberspace; however, as of current, engineers
have come up empty-handed. Engineers and information technology experts have historically
relied on what is referred to as perimeter defense, but these protective strategies are no longer
effective because hackers have been successful with infiltrating these types of defenses over and
over again.

METHODOLOGY

In order to explore this topic thoroughly, a secondary research study was carried out. The
secondary study involved a review of the scholarly literature. The articles were identified and
obtained from the New Mexico State University Library. A research question was formulated to

guide the research: What strategies can engineers use to secure cyberspace? After selecting
relevant, only need-to-know information, the researcher carefully analyzed the research for the
purpose of answering the research question.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Dunn-Cavelty (2014) explicitly states that current approaches to cyber-security are not
working (p. 701). For example, the perimeter defense strategy is no longer effective with
preventing attacks in cyberspace. Scholars claim that the perimeter defense mechanism is a
model that has become outdated and weak (He, 2014, p. 14). Placing routers and firewalls to
prevent attacks from happening to the perimeter defense mechanism no longer works. He (2014)
explains that all of these defenses have been and will be infiltrated. Yaday (2010) published a
report six years ago that identified this issue with perimeter defense claiming that once the bad
guys penetrate the defense it is no longer effective. Yaday (2010) also claims that websites can
be penetrated without breaches attacks can still occur when the hackers are on the inside.

A report that was conducted by McDuffie and Piotrowski (2014) shows that potential solutions
are slim and that engineers need to think about how to more effectively authenticate software.
This solution makes sense because He (2014) reported that authenticity issues with software had
resulted in many breaches in cyberspace. What this would involve is strengthening the identity
of the user through possibly mandating fingerprint entry for everyone instead of using a unique
passcode. McDuffie et al (2014) refer to this solution as the utilization of biometric
technologies.

Securing software presents a paramount problem for those in engineering. Because of software
security issues, Dunn-Cavelty (2014) puts the issue into perspective through stating that:

Cyber-threats and the measures necessary to counter them are the security issue of
the hour. In recent years, a number of sophisticated cyber-attacks and intensifying
media attention have combined to give the impression that cyber-incidents are
becoming more frequent, more organized, more costly, and altogether more
dangerous (p. 702).

According to Dunn-Cavelty (2014) engineers and other experts must take a proactive approach
to securing software, meaning stop the attack before it starts through designing technologies that
have the capability to identify vulnerability within the software.

ANALYSIS

Undoubtedly, there is a major issue for engineers when it comes to pressures to develop new
technologies that will make cyberspace a safer place for users. When historical approaches to
keeping cyberspace secure stop working, engineers must brainstorm ways to deter security
breaches from happening. An example of an historical approach that is no longer effective is the
perimeter defense. There was once a time when installing firewalls and routers were effective
with keeping the bad guys out; however, hackers and those with malicious intent have penetrated

this system time and time again, and a new strategy needs to be designed because national
security is currently compromised.

Although it appears as though there are more problems than there are solutions, authenticating
software and securing software have promise to provide a solution to the cyberspace issues.
Biometric technologies may be a potential solution. Biometric technologies work to strengthen
the users identity through devices such as fingerprint entry. Providing a fingerprint is more
difficult than simply punching in a unique code that serves as a password. These technologies
would help to improve the authenticity of software and hardware. In regards to making software
more secure, engineers must find a way to prevent an attack before it happens. Waiting to act
after security breaches have occurred is not an effective approach to securing cyberspace. One
way to accomplish this would be to design a technology that can detect vulnerabilities within the
software.

CONCLUSION AND FINAL RECOMMENDATION

It can be concluded, confidently, that securing cyberspace is a detrimental problem for engineers.
As of current, the cyberspace security issue is out of control; however, there are potential
solutions that may help make cyberspace a more secure place. Those potential solutions are:

Take proactive approaches

Do not rely on the perimeter defense strategy
Find ways to improve the authenticity of software
Use biometric technologies
Make software more secure

Implementing these five recommendations is likely to improve the security levels in cyberspace.
Thank you for your interest in this report.

Bibliography

Dunn-Cavelty, M. (2014). Breaking the cyber-security dilemma: aligning security needs and

removing vulnerabilities. Science and Engineering, 20 (3), 701-715.

He, D. (2014). How effective are the prevailing attack-defense models for cybersecurity

anyway? IEEE Intelligent Systems, 29 (5), 14-21.

McDuffie, E. & Piotrowski, V. (2014). The future of cybersecurity education. IEEE Computer

Society, 47 (8), 67-69.

Yaday, S. (2010). A six-view perspective framework for system security: issues, risks, and

requirements. International Journal of Information Security and Privacy, 4 (1), 61-92.