More security education needed to avoid a cybersecurity disaster, experts warn

The United States is more prepared than ever for a major cybersecurity attack, but a panel of prominent security experts warned Tuesday that more needs to be done to increase awareness about cybersecurity issues and better educate future IT pros.

"We need to provide resources for future problems," said Eugene Spafford, the executive director of Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS). "Patching the latest problem isn't getting us anywhere."

Spafford joined well known security experts Howard Schmidt, president and CEO of H&L Security Consulting and security luminary Bruce Schneier at the Information Security Decisions conference in Chicago for a discussion about cyber threats in 2008 and beyond. The panelists agreed that it would likely take a major cybersecurity event before the public becomes motivated enough to demand better security.

The panelists agreed that growing backdoor Trojan horse programs and herds of bots continue to be a problem moving forward, but it's unclear if they'll by used by cybercriminals to take down the electronic infrastructure of entire nations or in isolated targeted incidents for financial gain. >> More ..