Speakers: Host, Josette Ford
HOST: Welcome to this week’s podcast for BCC/403. The podcasts for each week of the course are interviews with a subject matter expert who will provide a brief overview of the week’s objectives and how they can be applied for the field of global technology and cybercrime.
For this course, our interviews are with Josette Ford (ph) who has been an intelligence analyst for 8 years and currently works at a sheriff’s department in California. She has her master’s in public policy from UCLA and her bachelor’s in international affairs from the George Washington University.
This week in the course, we will be discussing homeland security and global technology. What are a few types of global technology?
JOSETTE FORD: Okay, when we’re talking about global technology, one thing that you’ve got to keep in mind is that it is prevalent throughout the entirety of society, whether government, in your home, at schools, at your businesses. At all aspects of society, we are actively utilizing global technology. So that includes the Internet, the wireless devices, the smartphones that we use to access those services and the various apps. It includes our computers. It includes your information networks that are spanning the whole globe for some organizations and some agencies.
So these are just the major types of global technology that you and I both use on a daily basis. But there are very specific ones. The use of satellites by governments, that’s also an example of global technology. Those telecommunication towers, however they are governed in various countries, but in the United States they are not governed but they are owned privately in some aspects. The fiber optic cables that run underneath the majority, if not the whole, of the United States, that’s an example of global technology and the list can go on and on and on. But those are just a few examples.
HOST: What are some homeland security concerns related to global technology and cybercrime?
JOSETTE FORD: So when we’re talking about homeland security, one thing that you’ve got to think about; what are we talking about when we say “homeland?” For us, the homeland is the United States, not just the continental but all of its territories. So security overlaid on homeland, what we’re really trying to say is, how do we prevent any attacks or threats occurring or targeting the United States and its territories?
So homeland can certainly – homeland security concerns related to global technology can span your critical infrastructure attacks. It can span the sensitive government information leaks where people are either actively trying to get at those systems to get that information or passively. They obtain that information just by government negligence or personnel negligence. We’re also talking about intrusions whether at the government level or at our business level, trying to get at the backend systems of how not only our government works but how businesses work. We’ve been seeing it on the news recently. You’ve seen the attacks on – the denial of service attacks, which we’ll get into more detail later – on specific financial institutions like Bank of America, Chase. That affects us not only at the personal level, but at the very top level of government because financial institutions are part of our critical infrastructure. So that’s some of the main concern. So you have to think about it in terms of the whole entirety of the nation; how is that affecting the concerns of the nation when we talk about global technology and these cyber threats.
HOST: How has global technology changed our society?
JOSETTE FORD: I think everybody can pretty much say that it’s not only expanded our access but increased the level of our communication. It has made how we operate, not just in our personal lives but in government, a little bit more transparent so to speak, because there’s a saying that goes, If you put it on the Internet – I’m just taking the internet as an example of global technology – If you put it on the internet, the footprint is there. Essentially, somebody that has some type of savvy can find it. It never really goes away so that transparency is definitely a big thing but communications just at your personal level. We’re no longer paying long distance charges because of global technology, just that type of access, access for our markets, e-trade. That has grown just in a number of ways but that’s one of the basic things, I think. It just really does touch every aspect of your life and I know I’m going to keep saying that, but it is just that prevalent. Global technology in the cyberspace and the maximization of exploitation of cyberspace is limitless.
HOST: Thank you, Josette. Consider these concepts as you read your materials, complete your assignments, and answer this week’s discussion questions. Be sure to follow up with your instructor with any questions you might have.
[End of Audio]