Our earthly actions are distinctly human, even when they take place online. We look for those we can trust and we share information based on that perception. Hardly a surprise, given the fact that we create this world of technology and we interact with it in ways that we are wired to interact with the world and others. For example, you trust your social application, you trust your bank website, you trust your email, and this is all predicated on a series of facts including having passwords on things, by the fact that we carry our digital lives in our pockets, it’s yours and you can share information. Last week, T-Mobile disclosed that about 15 million customers had their Social Security numbers and other personal data stolen thanks to a breach at Experian plc (Experian), which is the largest of the big American consumer credit bureaus.

That’s not nearly as bad as it could have been. As one of the world’s largest providers of credit information, Experian maintains records on some 600 million consumers and another 60 million businesses on top of that, which its investigation found to have skirted the attack. But that’s not much consolation for the millions of T-Mobile subscribers whose personal information may now very likely end up on the black market. – SiliconANGLE

The pattern of stories like this one seem to be never-ending, it’s one breach after another.

Each time one of these security incidents happens, our expectations of privacy and security gets chipped away at. We are running out of things to trust and we are running out of things that haven’t been breached in some way. Possibly the worst offender of them all was the disclosure that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been conducting surveillance on all of us throughout our entire digital lives. While it could be argued that the NSA isn’t listening to everyone’s phone calls for example, or reading every email, it is the simple fact that they could that worries so many.

Shrinking world

Our digital world is shrinking and we are losing what we are to unseen enemies. How many readers have received that ill-fated letter that reported that your information may have been lost? I am sorry, but credit monitoring services don’t make up for what is being done to us on the whole.

The same thing is happening with our national and corporate secrets. There is no shortage of reports of breaches in either of those fields. We seem to be losing this cyberwar and not even putting up a fight. Since the first day my name was slapped onto security software, I have witnessed this progressive slide into digital anarchy. As a country, we need to adopt better technology, employ great people and more than anything, we must adopt a security mindset. To some people, my personal security habits appear as the acts of a paranoid man, which I understand. However, we live in a crazy world, in crazy times and there are so many things that we can see with our own eyes that threaten us as individuals.

The culture must change

A country that is moving forward can only be built on the peace that is gained through security. History is filled with periods of prosperity in the times that followed great struggles. My plan is to bring security and more importantly, a culture of security into our priorities as a nation. That culture must be ingrained into everything that we do.

The general principles are to protect your data, protect your company’s data, protect your country, and be aware. It seems pretty simple, but here’s the thing – if our own government has problems securing information, if they have problems violating the basic tenets of individualism and privacy, then why would anybody comply by protecting themselves? With relatively minor exceptions, our state of security is an abomination. The public isn’t walking around with that mentality because they are faced with the constant barrage of the loss of information and the loss of privacy.

Changing this starts with our government. You cannot build a house without a solid foundation and you cannot rebuild a country without protecting those things we build. As we can see in our own human behaviors, security evokes trust, and I plan to implement that into everything we do.

• We will inspire the individual to claim their digital sovereignty.
• We will respond to cyberattacks with economic sanctions and other penalties.
• We will protect what is ours with the full force and offensive capabilities at our disposal.
• We will embrace the digital age in a way that makes sense.

The next generation is critical to this future. Let’s kick it off right by showing them the way. Vote McAfee in 2016.

Picture credit: Cherubino