Scott Shackelford: Is IoT Going to be a Major Challenge for Global Cybersecurity?

Pacific Telecommunications Council

Interviewee: Scott J. Shackelford, Executive Director, and Chair, Ostrom Workshop, and Indiana University-Bloomington Cybersecurity Program, USA PTC provides a coffee-break update to an emerging threat. Or is it an emerging opportunity? In the Internet of Things era, we may be hitting an inflexion point in the importance of cybersecurity. Billions of connected devices in smart homes, smart offices, smart factories, smart cars, and smart planes potentially mean billions of points of vulnerability. The systemic complexity has taken a leap forward with 5G, AI, and machine learning all in the mix. With the stakes so high, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity professional vacancies suggest they are in much more demand than nurses, according to some reports. In this podcast, Professor Scott J. Shackelford of Indiana University gives an overview of the problems, practices, and possibilities of what’s happening globally and discusses the outlook for the C-suite and the regulator alike, in an era where the risks have arguably become very real. International moves suggest policy makers and leaders are more concerned than ever about offensive and defensive action in cyberspace and the place of national sovereignty. But there seems little international consensus about what to do. In the meantime, what are the threats? What happens about protection? Can consumers trust service providers? What reassurance do they need? How should businesses in the ICT space respond? Are cybersecurity experts about to be “the helping profession of the 21st century?” How do we ensure that they have the right skill sets moving forward? The podcast covers: • The increasing urgency of the cybersecurity threat. • How far can consumers be aware? Should they be aware? How can they be aware? • In an era of IoT, what are the prospective regulatory and legal approaches in cybersecurity? • What advice should CEOs get? Could we see the end of cybersecurity as a cost center in business? • How can we train and capacity build professionals for the future? What should they look like? • What is the outlook for 2020? Scott J. Shackelford is an associate professor of Business Law and Ethics, Cybersecurity Program Chair, and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance at Indiana University-Bloomington. He is the author of a series of books on cyberspace and its risks, including the upcoming The Internet of Things: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford University Press 2020.