(Special episode) Saving the world with 50-year-old I‪T‬

In December 2020, the company FireEye noticed that it had been the victim of a cyberintrusion. And it wasn’t the only one. About 18,000 companies and government agencies were breached — everything from the agency that controls America’s nuclear weapons to the agency that regulates the electric grid to a company whose products you probably use every day: Microsoft. So, what did they have in common? They were all using the same software monitoring service: a platform called Orion, from the company SolarWinds. The breach leaves the US open to nightmare scenario after nightmare scenario. In this episode of “Things That Go Boom,” The World’s partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley examines how we got here, and explores how can we prevent similar attacks in the future.

Guests:

Mieke Eoyang, senior vice president for the National Security Program and chairperson of the Cyber Enforcement Initiative, Third Way

Juliet Okafor, founder and CEO, Revolution Cyber

Additional reading:

Cybercrime vs. Cyberwar: Paradigms for Addressing Malicious Cyber Activity, Journal of National Security Law and Policy

To Catch a Hacker

A Moment of Reckoning: The Need for a Strong and Global Cybersecurity Response, Microsoft