Before decrying the latest cyberbreach, consider your own cyberhygiene

The theft of 80 million customer records from health insurance company Anthem earlier this month would be more shocking if it were not part of a larger trend. In 2013, the Department of Defense and some US states were receiving 10–20 million cyberattacks per day. By 2014, there was a 27% increase in successful attacks, culminating with the infamous hack of Sony Pictures.

Much of the media focus is on the losses rather than the process by which such breaches take place. Consequently, instead of talking about how we could stop the next attack, people and policymakers are discussing punitive actions. But not enough attention is given to the actions of individual end users in these cyberattacks.


We are the unintentional insiders

Many of these hacking attacks employ simple phishing schemes, such as an e-card on Valentine’s Day or a notice from the IRS about your tax refund. They look innocuous but when clicked, they open virtual back doors into our organizations.

It is you and I who click on these links and become the “unintentional insiders” giving the hackers access and helping spread the infection. Such attacks are hard to detect using existing anti-virus programs that, like vaccines, are good at protecting systems from known external threats — not threats from within.

Clearly, this virtual battle cannot be won using software alone. In the same way personal hygiene stymies the spread of infectious disease, fixing this cyber quandary will require all of us to develop better cyberhygiene. We need to begin by considering the cyberbehaviors that lead to breaches.

My research on phishing points to three. Firstly, most of us pay limited attention to email content, focusing instead on quick clues that help expedite judgment. A picture of an inexpensive heart-shaped valentine gift gets attention, oftentimes at the cost of looking at the sender’s email address.

This is coupled by our ritualized media habits that our always-on and accessible smartphones and tablets enable. Many of us check emails throughout the day whenever an opportunity or notification arises, even when we know it is dangerous to do so, such as while driving. Such habitual usage significantly increases the likelihood of someone opening an email as matter of routine.

And finally, many of us just aren’t knowledgeable about online risks. We tend to hold what I call “cyber risk beliefs” about the security of an operating system, the safety of a program, or the vulnerability of an online action, most of which are flawed.

Sit on down and get educated.  Matt Grimm, CC BY-NC-SA

Cleaning up our cyberhygiene act

Developing cyberhygiene requires all of us — netizens, educators, local government, and federal policymakers — to actively engage in creating it.

To begin, we must focus on educating everyone about the risks of online actions. Most children don’t learn about cybersafety until they reach high school; many until college. More troublingly, some learn through risky trials or the reports of someone else’s errors.

In an age where online data remain on servers perpetually, the consequences of a privacy breach could haunt a victim forever. Expanding federal programs such as the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, which presently aims to inspire students to pursue cybersecurity careers, could help achieve universal cybersecurity education.

Second, we must train people to become better at detecting online fraud. At the very least, all of us must be made aware of online security protocols, safe browsing practices, secure password creation and storage, and on procedures for sequestering or reporting suspicious activity. Flawed cyber-risk beliefs must be replaced with objective knowledge through training.

Although some training programs address these issues, most target businesses that can pay for training. Left out are households and other vulnerable groups, which, given the recent “bring your own device to work” (BYOD) trend, increases the chances that a compromised personal device brings a virus into the workplace. Initiatives such as the Federal Cybersecurity Training Events that presently offer free workshops to IT professionals are steps in this direction, but the emphasis must move beyond training specialists to training the average netizen.

President Obama calls for beefing up cybersecurity laws on Feb 13, 2015. Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Finally, we must centralize the reporting of cyber breaches. The President’s proposed Personal Data Notification and Protection Act would make it mandatory for companies to report data breaches within 30 days. But it still doesn’t address who within the vast network of enforcement agencies is responsible for resolution. Having a single clearing house that centralizes and tracks breaches, just like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks disease outbreaks across the nation, would make remediation and resource allocation easier.

Across the Atlantic, the City of London Police created a system called Action Fraud, which serves as a single site for reporting all types of cyberattacks, along with a specialized team called FALCON to quickly respond to and even address impending cyberattacks. Our city and state police forces could do likewise by channeling some resource away from fighting offline crime. After all, real world crime is at a historically low rate while cybercrimes have grown exponentially.

India could be the world's most important solar market

Europe, the U.S., Japan, and China have been the stars of the solar industry for the past decade. In the early 2000s, Europe's feed-in tariffs gave birth to the industry as we know it. China brought low-cost manufacturing and billions of dollars in capacity expansions at a rapid rate. Now, the U.S. and Japan are growing demand based on market forces, not subsidies or government mandates.

But the biggest prize in the solar industry could be India. The country has an underserved population that solar energy could help to power, and its population of over 1 billion provides an opportunity for growth that could last for decades.



India's big solar plans

India actually has two distinct potential solar markets, utility scale and small distributed solar on rooftops in rural areas . First, the government is pushing massive 500-plus megawatt solar power plants in a bid to build 100 gigawatts of solar by 2022. SunEdison has been an early mover in this market, saying recently it will build over 15 GW of wind and solar in the next seven years. First Solar is also moving into the market with a plan for 5 GW of solar projects.  

The U.S. has said it is ready to help cover the estimated $160 billion investment needed to build that much solar energy, a potential financial lifeline for India's unstable energy industry.

To put this investment into perspective, China is the world's largest solar energy producer, with 33.4 GW installed, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, while India has just 3.3 GW of solar. To hit 100 GW by 2022, India would have to install on average 13.8 GW of solar every year, more than any country has ever installed and double what the U.S. installed in 2014.  



The smaller, and potentially more important Indian solar market

Mega-solar projects aren't the only kind of solar energy India will build in the next few years. Distributed solar, installed on rooftops or in fields close to demand sources, will play a large role in powering the country's rural populations.

The central grid does a poor job of reaching some of India's most remote locations, and there's little hope they'll be connected anytime soon. The best option is for communities to build their own microgrids, powered by locally produced energy from wind, solar, and other sources and including new technologies such as energy storage and demand response.

Why the industry will grow for decades

India has a couple things going for it that other countries investing in solar don't. The nation is expected to be the world's most populous country by 2030. This rapid population growth will be one of the drivers of India doubling the amount of energy it consumes by that time, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

As you can see above, India also has strong solar resources, particularly in the western part of the country. In the map above, the region that gets 5.0 to 6.0 kW-hrs/m2/day gets a similar amount of sunlight as the southwestern U.S. in terms of intensity. For some perspective, nearly all of the country gets more solar energy than northeastern U.S. states such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.

Germany, China, the U.S., and other nations have also done much of the dirty work in proving out solar energy's feasibility and lowering costs to prices competitive with fossil fuels. India can now install large-scale solar plants for $1.60 per watt or less, which is a fraction of what it cost Germany to install most of its solar capacity.

These strong growth factors and a government that is putting its weight behind solar energy make India one of the world's most important solar markets. Companies that can gain market share and win projects there should reap billions of dollars in profits for investors. It's just a race to see who will get there first.


Credits: BussinessInsider

(Don’t Be) “Bad at Math”

Let’s start with a multiple-choice question...

Question: Imagine that you’re at a party, and you’ve just struck up a conversation with a dynamic, successful businesswoman. Which of the following are you most likely to hear her say during the course of your conversation?

Answer choices:

a. “I really don’t know how to read very well.”

b. “I can’t write a grammatically correct sentence.”

c. “I’m awful at dealing with people.”

d. “I’ve never been able to think logically.”

e. “I’m bad at math.”

We all know that the answer is E, because we’ve heard it so many times. Not just from businesswomen and businessmen, but from actors and athletes, construction workers and sales clerks, and sometimes even teachers and CEOs. Somehow, we have come to live in a society in which many otherwise successful people not only have a problem with mathematics but are unafraid to admit it. In fact, it’s sometimes stated almost as a point ofpride, with little hint ofembarrassment. It doesn’t take a lot of thought to realize that this creates major problems. 

Mathematics underlies nearly everything in modern society, from the daily financial decisions that all of us must make to the way in which we understand and approach global issues of the economy, politics, and science. We cannot possibly hope to act wisely if we don’t have the ability to think critically about mathematical ideas.

Look again at our opening multiple-choice question. It would be difficult to imagine the successful businesswoman admitting to any of choices A through D, even if they were true, because all would be considered marks of ignorance and shame. 
      
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