Exploring a Potential Federal Insurance Response to Catastrophic Cyber Risk: Implementing Strategic Objective 3.6 of the U.S. National Cyber Strategy
Join UC Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute and UCI Law, as well as senior officials from the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, Department of the Treasury, and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency for a deep dive into the possibilities of leveraging a potential United States Government financial backstop for the cyber-insurance ecosystem to improve cyber hygiene and our national and economic security.
This event is pending approval for 3.0 hours of Minimum Continuing Legal Education Credit by the State Bar of California. The University of California, Irvine School of Law is a State Bar-approved MCLE provider.
Location
UCI Continuing Education Building – Yosemite Ballroom
510 East Peltason Drive Irvine, CA 92697
When
October 19, 2023 • 9 am to 4 pm
Reception to follow
No Fee to Attend
Keynote Address by The Honorable Jeh Johnson
Former US Secretary of Homeland Security & Department of Defense General Counsel
AGENDA
9-9:30 am
Registration & Welcome
9:30-10:30 am
Keynote by The Honorable Jeh Johnson (starts @ 09:30 am sharp)
10:30-10:45 am
Break
11 am-12 pm
Panel 1: A Proposal for a Catastrophic Cyberattack Resilience Act
Featuring Bryan Cunningham, Executive Director, UC Irvine Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute and Gregory Eskins, Cyber Product Leader, Marsh
12-1 pm
Lunch
1:15-2:15 pm
Panel 2: US Government Panel with Senior Officials from the Office of the National Cyber Director, Department of the Treasury, and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
2:15-2:30 pm
Break
2:30-3:30 pm
Panel 3: The Insurance Industry’s Role in Cybersecurity Resiliency
Featuring Shauhin Talesh, Professor of Law, UC Irvine School of Law; Emily Agramonte, Executive Business Development, West, Coalition Inc.; Kerri Hamm, Executive Vice President, Business Development, Munich Re; Shabnam Jalakian, Sr. Vice President, First American Financial Corporation; Matt Prevost, Vice President, Cyber & Technology Product Manager, Chubb
4-5:30 pm
Networking Reception
The Lawfare Podcast: Rob Joyce, NSA Director of Cybersecurity
By Jen Patja Howell
Friday, April 7, 2023, 5:01 AM
Rob Joyce is the Director of the Cybersecurity Directorate at the National Security Agency. He’s been NSA’s top cryptologic representative in the United Kingdom and has also worked in the U.S. National Security Council.
David Kris, Lawfare contributor and former Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, and Bryan Cunningham, Lawfare contributor and Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, sat down with Rob to talk about his career trajectory, the quantum decryption threat, strategic competition in cyber with the People’s Republic of China, and cooperation between the private sector and the government in cyberspace.
(more…)How China-linked espionage is hindering TikTok’s U.S. future
Sam Sabin, author of Axios Codebook
3/23/23
TikTok’s biggest problem isn’t its data security programs, it’s the race between the U.S. and China to become the world’s dominant cyber superpower.
The big picture: Chilling relations between the U.S. government and Beijing have only made lawmakers more wary of the capabilities China-backed hacking teams are brewing — and what classified U.S. data they’re collecting.
- The 2014 hacks of the Office of Personnel Management, which several firms linked to China, opened up the U.S. cyber community’s eyes, Bryan Cunningham, former adviser to the White House National Security Council, told Axios.
- Since then, China state-sponsored hackers have launched hundreds of wide-scale espionage campaigns in the U.S. to collect corporate secrets, sensitive communications and much more.
- The Chinese military under President Xi Jinping has also prioritized online influence campaigns that spread pro-China narratives, Kenton Thibaut, a resident China fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Axios.
- “In the past few years, China saw this real need to respond to what it saw as Western attacks on it, so it wanted to gain control of the narrative,” she said.
TikTok CEO to Face Lawmakers This Week
TikTok’s CEO was in the hot seat Thursday on Capitol Hill. Shou Chew spoke to lawmakers, pleading his case for why the popular app shouldn’t be banned in the U.S. Rick Jordan, founder of Reachout Technology, breaks down what happened on the hill.
White House Demands TikTok Sell or Risk Ban
FOX 5 DC
3/16/23
The White House recently gave TikTok an ultimatum — they want the Chinese-owned company to either sell or face a ban in the U.S. But would a sale end the national security concerns raised by the app?
Biden cyber strategy a ‘game changer’ and ‘revolutionary,’ industry pros say
Stephen Weigand
March 3, 2023
Many industry professionals viewed the Biden administration’s cybersecurity strategy to secure the nation’s technology as a positive step, with some calling the policy “revolutionary” and a “game changer” as it shifts the security burden from end-users to manufacturers. However, they also warned of the investment that will be needed to carry it out.
(more…)The Lawfare Podcast: Chris Inglis
By Jen Patja Howell
Tuesday, February 21, 2023, 5:01 AM
Chris Inglis has had an illustrious career in the defense of this country, serving as an Air Force general, deputy director of the National Security Agency, and most recently as the first National Cyber Director in the White House. Chris stepped down from his position last week, and he sat down for his first interview as a private citizen with David Kris, Lawfare contributor and former assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, and Bryan Cunningham, Lawfare contributor and executive director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. They talked about a wide range of cyber topics, including the newly minted National Cyber Strategy, protection of critical infrastructure, cyber insurance, competition in the international front, and more.
(more…)The Lawfare Podcast: Bryan Cunningham on a Federally Funded Backstop for the Cyber Insurance Ecosystem
By Jen Patja Howell
Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 5:01 AM
Various press reports have indicated that the Biden administration intends to release its cyber strategy in the coming weeks. The cyber strategy will likely cover a range of issues. One potential topic could involve the creation of a federal response or “backstop” to the financial exposure risks that insurers and reinsurers face from future catastrophic cyber incidents affecting those that they insure.
(more…)
Twitter liberals nervous about Elon Musk in direct messages
By Jon Levine – New York Post
November 26, 2022
“If you continue to use Twitter direct messages for personal or sensitive communications, understand that Elon Musk or, for that matter, any other Twitter insider with sufficient authority can read them. This is because such messages are not end-to-end encrypted, unlike a number of other easy-to-use applications,” said Bryan Cunningham of the UC Irvine Cybersecurity and Policy Institute.
Read the entire story at New York Post
UCI and BlackBerry win National Science Foundation convergence accelerator grant
October 12, 2022
The National Science Foundation has awarded $750,000 to a multidisciplinary team from the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute (CPRI), its Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and BlackBerry to address the challenges around secure communications on public 5G networks.
The funds are being allocated under the NSF convergence accelerator program, which supports projects that tackle national problems.
“In safety- and security-critical applications, whether involving disaster response, international humanitarian assistance, connected vehicles, critical infrastructure like the power grid, or defense-related operations, lives and vital interests depend on the ability to communicate reliably and securely across public 5G networks,” said Bryan Cunningham, CPRI executive director. “More broadly, economic, trade, and individual needs can be enabled and expanded by the ability to securely communicate across such public networks.”
(more…)