It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that all of its citizens are safe and in proper living conditions.
There are lots of ways to do that such as improving healthcare, ensuring that the education system gets proper funding, the construction of infrastructures, and many more.
However, one usually overlooked sector is cybersecurity.
Ensuring that entire nations get a strong cybersecurity network avoids potentially catastrophic cyberattacks that drain billions of dollars from companies all of the globe annually.
This is especially important knowing that society has grown dependent on the internet.
So, how can governments fully utilize this vital necessity which we call cybersecurity?
Here’s how.
Establish strict guidelines and policies.
Governments can adopt a federal framework just like what’s done with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. This way, they can create a groundwork for a strong and virtually hack-proof network.
What the framework does is that it assesses the lifecycle of the different cybersecurity risks that surround organizations, companies, and the general public.
This helps lower the risk of possible cyberattacks, as well as improve the resilience of vital infrastructures that are directly connected to the economy.
Seek the expertise of professionals and academics.
It would be wise for governments to seek the aid and full support of cybersecurity experts to layout strong groundworks for ensuring the safety of everyone online.
This can be done by creating a cybersecurity advisory council that will supervise and create guidelines to help companies, organizations, and government sectors to carry out their duties in the most efficient way possible without the fear of being hacked or breached by cybercriminals.
This council will be made up of academes, industry experts, and public leaders. These people will then develop cybersecurity strategies that will help the state government to deal with current cyber threats.
Enhance the integrity of elections.
Cybersecurity can play a huge role in ensuring that elections are accurate and factual. This is highly needed today knowing that there’s a growing number of people who aren’t convinced that election results, whether local or national, are indeed true.
This is because of the numerous reports saying that the Russian government influenced the election results which made Donald Trump the president of the US.
Although these aren’t fully proven, it is possible to avoid situations such as this with a strict and full implementation of cybersecurity measures.
The Department of Homeland Security can use new cybersecurity measures and systems to ensure that all election results are factual and accurate.
Combat terrorism and crime.
The US allot most of its national budget to the military. Why not strengthen this cause even more by adding cybersecurity into the areas that the military covers?
Not only will this help fight and defeat terrorism that has plagued the freedom of many countries around the globe, but this can also improve the security of mainland US.
And this doesn’t just mean that it’s just for the American government, but for all governments around the globe.
By integrating cybersecurity into the defense measures of a government, entire nations will be more secure in knowing that potential terrorists won’t be able to hack onto a system and gain the information they can use to carry out their terroristic activities.
This will also help track down vigilantes and criminals, thus again, improving overall safety.
Final Words
Cybersecurity has grown in importance, especially that we’re living in a highly digitized world. Governments need to step in and see its importance so that it can speed up adoption and bring in a safer and more secure cyberspace for all of us.
We need this very much knowing that we use the internet for our day-to-day lives. This will also help in tackling some of the most menacing issues that plague society today such as crime, terrorism, and fraud.
Cybersecurity is here to stay no matter. We just need to make the most out of it. Well, the government needs to initiate this. When it does, then society will follow.
