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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

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Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Here’s why the State Department may need a new cyber office

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Cyber Security

Comments: 0

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission will recommend that the Department of State establish a bureau focused on international cybersecurity efforts and emerging technologies as part of its forthcoming report, commissioners said March 3 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The suggestion from the commission, made up of government and non-government cybersecurity experts developing cyber policy recommendations, comes as part of a broader belief in the group that the State Department needs to be more involved on cybersecurity issues.

Among the report’s 75 recommendations, set for release March 11, will be the proposal for a new State Department office called the “Bureau for Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies,” in addition to a new assistant secretary of state position to coordinate international outreach for cyber issues and emerging tech.

The new position would report to the deputy secretary of state or undersecretary of political affairs, according to Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., a member of the commission. The goal of the new office is to take cybersecurity issues at the department and “raising its level of importance and stature ... to reinforce that this is an international approach that we need to and want to take," Langevin said.

In its fiscal 2021 budget request, released in February, the State Department asked Congress for $6 million in new funding for establish an “Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies” office. According to the budget request, the office would “allow the Department of State to ensure the development of long-term, comprehensive expertise in order to fully support U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic initiatives needed to meet the national security challenges posed by cyberspace and emerging technologies.”

Right now, the top cybersecurity official at the State Department is Robert Strayer, who has headed 5G policy and international outreach for that issue. That effort has centered on convincing allies not to use hardware from the China-based Huawei company in their 5G networks — an effort that has had limited success.

For example, Great Britain announced last month that it would allow Chinese tech in non-critical portions of its 5G network. Germany is also reportedly expected to make a decision soon. Chris Inglis, former deputy director of the NSA and current Solarium commissioner, said that the United States may have had limited success on the issue because U.S. policymakers were “late to the game" and there wasn’t an agency charged with that role. That’s a gap the suggested bureau would fill.

The commission is needed “so that in the future hopefully 6G, 7G, 10G will be the responsibility of somebody at least in terms of the international portfolio,” Inglis said.

 

Photo: The Cyberspace Solarium Commission wants to establish a new cyber office at the State Department. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

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