The Dilemma of Cybersecurity

Rebecca M. Slayton, associate professor of science and technology studies, is researching the history of cybersecurity expertise in the United States Department of Defense (DOD), explains an article on the Cornell Research website. In the article, she shares a story of two hackers who brought the DOD to realize that increasing reliance on information technology was also a vulnerability.

“Shortly before the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm, two teenagers from the Netherlands hacked into the DOD’s new logistics system and gained control over it,” the article explains. "United States–led coalition forces achieved their military objectives in the Gulf War in a matter of weeks. But Slayton points out that things could have been quite different if the two hackers had had their way."

Read the story on the Cornell Research website.

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