The main government approach to cybersecurity has been to think of it through the lens of the military and intelligence community. After all that is where the most expertise lies today. This lens is problematic going forward. We should instead be looking to the way the government thinks of safety: for transportation, disease, consumer products, and the workplace. These are better models for the information security challenge we face. Instead of fighting a battle we need to use science and engineering to build security in. This is what will make the IT of the future safe.
Chris Wysopal is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Veracode, which he co-founded in 2006. He oversees technology strategy and information security. Prior to Veracode, Chris was vice president of research and development at security consultancy @stake, which was acquired by Symantec. In the 1990’s, Chris was one of the original vulnerability researchers at The L0pht, a hacker think tank, where he was one of the first to publicize the risks of insecure software. He has testified to the US Congress on the subjects of government security and how vulnerabilities are discovered in software.