Experts: Cybercrime Causes Pain, but It’s also Creating Jobs

Photo: From Left to right, moderator Tom Glocer, Suresh Kumar, Paul Lewis, Dan Ennis and Nick Selby. Credit: Benjamin Rubin.

 

By Benjamin Rubin

 

More and more people are getting hit by cybercrimes in our new digital age. As cybersecurity experts gathered at a conference at Pace University on Oct. 18, the public unfortunately had to rely on underfunded law enforcement agencies to help solve the ongoing threat of cybercrimes.

The number of such crimes is so high that over the last year thousands of people lost thousands of dollars each, with no real hope of recovering their money. The Oct. 8 panel included government insiders from the highest levels of the government, including the National Security Agency and federal agents. They warned that the nation is facing an unprecedented threat on every front. Cybercrime directly affects corporations, the military, and even the integrity of our election systems. They said that the silver lining for students and people looking to get into the industry is that there is an employment opportunity around every corner. They advised the audience about what specializations are safe bets, and coached people on how to have a positive attitude even in the face of the problem.

The picture some of the panels painted was so dire that some in the audience jokingly called it the “Doom and Gloom” gathering.

“We suck in truly weapons grade ways,” said Nick Selby, the New York Police Department’s current Director of Cyber Intelligence and Investigations, speaking to the audience. “However, there’s a couple things about sucking this badly that are that are actually kind of hopeful. The first thing is the best time to have planted a tree was 20 years ago and the second-best time to plant a tree is today.”

He said that as director he has seen a number of high-profile cases involving big companies up close. By the time he shows up, Selby said, it’s usually to a room full of people who recognize that they screwed up badly enough to lose their jobs, and they are desperate for him to save them. Selby said that he usually tells them that the best time to deal with the issue is that very day, and that the situation never just gets better on its own.

Selby went on to talk about the public’s misconception about the NYPD’s ability to recover money stolen through cybercrime. He said that every year his agency is swamped with thousands of calls from average people with heart-wrenching stories of theft. Selby said that he has a hard time explaining to them that because they are so underfunded his agents cannot help most of the victims recover anything.

The panels discussed the growing sophistication on both sides of the cyber battles. The role humans play is getting more complicated because machine learning and artificial intelligence are playing bigger parts on both sides of the equation.