Association for information systems

2.1 The Rise of Cyberthreats 
An agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Advanced Research Projects Agency 
(ARPA) was created in 1958 and began examining the feasibility of a redundant, 
networked communications system to support the exchange of computer data. The 
resulting network, called ARPANET, was created in the late 1960s and saw wide use, 
increasing the potential for its misuse.  
Security that went beyond protecting the physical location of computing devices 
effectively began with a single paper published by the RAND Corporation in February 
1970 for the Department of Defense. That report, RAND Report R-609, attempted to 
define the multiple controls and mechanisms necessary for the protection of a 
computerized data-processing system.  
In the 1970s, the development of TCP (the Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (the 
Internet Protocol) led to the emergence of the Internet. The development of the World 
Wide Web in the 1980s brought the Internet to wide use, which significantly increased 
the importance of cybersecurity. The U.S. Government passed several key pieces of 
legislation that formalized the recognition of computer security as a critical issue for 
federal information systems including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and 
the Computer Security Act of 1987. The Internet eventually brought ubiquitous 
connectivity to virtually all computers, where integrity and confidentiality were a lower 
priority than the drive for availability. Many problems that plague the Internet today 
result from this early lack of focus on security awareness.  

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Cybersecurity 2017
 
 
Version 1.0 Report
 
CSEC2017
 
 
31 December 2017
 
17 
 
Early computing approaches relied on security that was built into the physical 
environment of the data center that housed the computers. As networked computers 
became the dominant style of computing, the ability to physically secure a networked 
computer was lost, and the stored information became more exposed to security threats. 
Larger organizations began integrating security into their computing strategies. Anti-virus 
products became extremely popular, and cybersecurity began to emerge as an 
independent discipline. 
The Internet brings unsecured computer networks and billions of connected devices into 
continuous communication with each other. The security of each computer’s stored 
information is contingent upon awareness, learning, and applying cybersecurity 
principles. Securing a computer’s stored information can be accomplished by first 
determining a value for the information. Choosing security controls to apply and protect 
the information as it is transmitted, processed and stored should be commensurate with 
that value and its threat environment.  
Recent years have seen a growing awareness of the need to improve cybersecurity, as 
well as a realization that cybersecurity is important to the national defense of every 
country. The growing threat of cyberattacks has made governments and companies more 
aware of the need to defend the computerized control systems of utilities and other 
critical infrastructure. Another growing concern is the threat of nation-states engaging in 
cyberwarfare, and the possibility that business and personal information systems could 
become casualties if they are undefended.