Cybersecurity played a role in most major conflicts of 2018, from U.S. efforts to hold Russia accountable for its attempts to undermine the 2016 election to U.S.-China clashes over trade and technology to the midterm election contest held under a cloud of uncertainty about whether foreign powers were attempting to influence the vote.
There was positive news, especially the Homeland Security Department’s successful work with state and local officials to vastly improve the cybersecurity of election infrastructure in advance of the midterms.
Most of the stories raised red flags, however. China, which reduced its digital theft of U.S. companies’ intellectual property after a 2015 detente, is ramping up again. Sophisticated, possibly nation-state-linked hacking groups also stole personal information from up to 500 million customers at Marriott’s Starwood hotel chain and internal emails from the National Republican Campaign Committee.
The master narrative, according to cyber experts, is this: The United States is getting better at cyber defense, but our adversaries are hitting us as hard as ever in cyberspace and U.S. officials…
