Request for Information 

Submitted to the Commission on Enhancing National 

Cybersecurity 

Respondent Organization:	 CynjaTech 

P.O. Box 65916 

Washington, DC 20035 

info@cynja.com 

Information Prepared By:	 Heather Dahl 

Chase Cunningham 

Date Submitted:	 September 9, 2016 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

																																																							

 

Information on Current and Future 

States of Cybersecurity in the 

Digital Economy 

Executive Summary 

The	Internet &	its	Promise

The Internet has revolutionized the way we live our lives, it seems to touch us in 

every aspect from our personal relationships to business and even our health. 

Many consider the Internet to be one of the most important innovations. It has 

brought society advancement, growth and connected us on a global scale. 

It’s because of the Internet that we have become a digital society. A digital 

society that is now inseparable from our physical world. This digital society is 

only in the early stages of maturing. 

It’s	Fraying

Today’s Internet is demonstrating signs of straining, potentially to a breaking 

point. We don’t have to look far for evidence of this. News headlines of another 

data breach are a regular occurrence; from the Democratic National Committee 

to the Office of Personnel Management or Sony are evidence of this trend. 

These continual breaches have created an expansive and growing cybersecurity 

industry. The U.S. Federal cybersecurity market alone is $18 Billion is expected 

to grow at a steady Compound Annual Growth rate of 4.4 percent.1 

Today there are armies of IT professionals working on cybersecurity related 

solutions. The vast majority of them are either focused on tools to try to keep 

malicious invaders out of networks or performing forensic analysis after they 

failed. These are critical functions but they do need improvement. However, 

much of our focus as an industry is dedicated only to developing reactive and 

defensive solutions. As a result, we are not fixing the problem of insecurity, we 

are creating more bandages to cover weaknesses and this has lead into what is 

best described as an arms race against the malicious players. 

Think	Differently

CynjaTech is thinking about the problem differently. As a society, we need to 

acknowledge that our life is now a digital one. We can no longer think of 

cyberspace as an alternate reality or an existence separate from each one of us. 

1 Market Research Media, U.S. Federal Cybersecurity Market Forecast 2017-2022, September 5, 

2016 
 

 

 

 

 

 

	 	

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our digital society is inextricably intertwined with our physical lives. When we are 

harmed in either the digital or physical world we are hurt for real. We can see this 

when teens commit suicide from being bullied online or kids are abducted as the 

result of a chat app or even when medical devices that provide life support are 

hacked in health facilities. The examples of how lives are harmed by digital 

attacks grows by the day. 

Key Problem Areas

• Data Ownership & Management 

• Rules & Regulations 

• Technical Education 

• Cyber Education. 

Forging	a	New Frontier

Today our digital world is metaphorically the Wild Wild West. Our challenge now 

is to set up a society where we can live with safety and full protection of our 

individual rights. That's why we need to approach the notion of cybersecurity 

from a new understanding, one that will actually benefit society rather than 

temporarily patch security flaws. We must look towards a new cybersecurity that 

will support how we actually live and engage with our digital neighbors. 

Best practices need to change: Organizations, including business, government, 

and technology firms, need to stop physically holding data of their customers, 

clients, or individuals who need to access their services. They should stop 

sucking up and hoarding every piece of data they can get their hands on. The 

risks to our security and ultimately rights as a society far outweigh the benefits. 

Digital rights must be carefully considered: As a democracy we need to look at 

what data ownership, data control and privacy means in a digital society. Our 

federal, state and local policies in this area are lagging. Businesses who profit 

from our digital lives are the ones leading the way in defining our individual rights 

in a digital democracy. As a result, our rights as an individual are being left 

behind. More entities need to be involved in defining the boundaries around our 

digital artifacts and property. And technology must be created to support those 

rights and policies protecting us. 

Personal responsibility in our digital lives: The fact is, we are all connected. While 

the benefits of this connectivity means it's easy to conduct business on a global 

scale or share details of our lives with friends across the country, it also means 

that when we fail to take security precautions we expose our networks to the 

same risk. Critical thinking about our personal responsibilities online is a major 

deficiency. Approachable conversation, education and resources about our 

personal responsibilities in cyberspace must be a part of every aspect of our lives 

from home, to work and school. Just like in public health, we've educated the 

general population on the importance of washing their hands, we need to 

approach digital responsibility the same way. Given that our lives are now digital, 

we all need to understand how to live safely in this world. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Educating for success in this digital world: Technology is core to our society but 

we face a shortage of skilled workers, especially in cybersecurity. Much focus 

has been placed on coding camps for schools and kids. Those are important and 

valuable programs. But the fact remains, not all kids will grow up wanting to work 

in technology, yet they will use technology. We must rethink our approach to 

cyber education. It needs to expand beyond this current focus on programming 

skills or cyberbullying because the fact is not every adult will need or want to 

program, nor is cyberbullying the only digital threat they will face. Now is the time 

to teach digital life skills that spans technology, critical thinking and even our civic 

responsibility in cyberspace. 

New Thinking

The exponential growth of cyber crimes, data theft and database breaches, show 

that the Internet which powered so much benefit has also placed many of us at 

an increased risk that didn't exist 20 years ago. The traditional cybersecurity of 

today is providing some protections but obviously not solving the underlying 

problem. The time has come for government to support and encourage those 

technologies which approach solving today's problems in a different way—that of 

prevention and education. 

CynjaTech is taking a new approach to cybersecurity. We are a technology firm 

focused on securing families, children and senior citizens online. Rather than 

building the next in a long line of better defensive solutions, we look at how to 

improve lives in a digital society. Our security technology looks at technology 

being a part of our daily life, not a separate virtual reality or another cool app, but 

rather something that touches us at every moment of the day. 

Our firm solves data management and cyber education together in our platforms. 

We are leading the way in a new generation of technology firms that will prevent 

exposure to cyber crimes and empower individuals to protect their digital lives 

and communities. We are dedicated to developing technologies that will protect our most 

exploited populations online because they have not been provided with the help they need online. 

We focus our comments on these key problem areas; Data Ownership & 

Management, Rules & Regulations, Technical Education and Cyber Education. 

These fall into the Enhancing National Cybersecurity Commission's core topic 

areas of Cybersecurity Research & Development and Public Awareness & 

Education. 

Current and future trends and challenges in the selected 

topic area; 

Today’s Internet was born out of early innovations that established the most 

resilient network on the planet. This resilience comes from the protocols invented 

during the late 20th century. These protocols established mechanisms that enable 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

																																																							

decentralized and distributed communication. Since these core protocols do not 

depend on centralized services they have no single points of failure. 

While this was a great innovation that has led to not only the Internet being an 

immense driver of economic activity, it has ushered in the beginnings of a digital 

society. However, the Internet is facing problems. Those protocols focused on 

resiliency they did not focus on security and they did not focus on identity. We 

didn’t plan for our lives to become digital as they have become. 

The problems are well known. We hear about data breaches constantly. The 

news headlines we all hear–the Sony compromise, the Office of Personnel 

Management breach, the Democratic National Committee hack—are, sadly, all 

too real and devastating. However, the headlines obfuscate the sheer amount of 

data being stolen in what amounts to be millions of data records. Eight months 

into 2016 and we have seen 638 breaches2 so far and there is no end in sight 

because cyber crime around the world continues to grow exponentially. 

The fact is, it is our data being stolen. The data of citizens, kids, senior citizens, 

families, it is the data of humans with real lives who have little control over how 

their data is protected in the first place. Technology has reversed the course of 

personal ownership and now a system has been created that means our data is 

no longer ours and the security of our data is someone else’s responsibility. 

Moreover, Americans have low levels of trust in the government and business sectors 

that they associate with data collection and monitoring. They are not sure their core 

communications channels are secure, and they have exceedingly low levels of 

confidence in the privacy and security of the records that are maintained by a variety of 

institutions in the digital age. Indeed, noteworthy numbers of them have suffered privacy 

breaches, especially younger adults. 

Privacy and Information Sharing, Pew Research Center, January 14, 2016 

The trend until now has been to take away an individual’s digital rights and then 

leave the individual to clean up the aftermath in their own lives as a result of a 

cyber crime. There remains futile accountability for how organizations, 

businesses or agencies share, treat or protect our data. 

With the hype around data mining, analytics and monetizing our data, there is 

also little incentive at the moment to provide individuals with the ability to control 

their data. This means data is stored and copied in centralized silos and is at 

constant risk of compromises, leaks, attacks, and behavioral tracking because 

hacking the single key used in this architecture unlocks everything. With this 

model, an individual’s data is then replicated with each app, piece of software or 

website that they use making it virtually impossible to control it, let alone provide 

the individual an efficient way of consenting on how, or if, they want to share their 

data. In today’s technology, and much of the future technology that large vendors 

2 http://www.idtheftcenter.org/images/breach/DataBreachReport_2016.pdf 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

																																																							

propose, data is owned by everyone but the individual or organization who truly 

has the inherent right to own it. The advancement of technology has left 

individual rights behind and as a result it has created a costly cybersecurity 

quagmire. 

The many data breaches and hacks which leads to millions of pieces of data, 

data representing citizens, not only provides the necessary fuel for malicious 

actors to commit crimes hacking, espionage, or surveillance, it also enables 

identity theft, harassment, stalking, and unwanted sexual solicitations enabling 

bad actors to pretend to be trusted members of our lives. This is especially 

dangerous to our young and old. 

These problems have also sparked an arms race of sorts. The cybersecurity 

industry has been growing at a high rate. Gartner Research reported the global 

cybersecurity market will be worth $170 Billion in the next four years.3 We have 

seen much advancement in the areas of security. Private industry is producing 

more and more tools that improve on the security of devices and systems. This is 

progress but it is largely defensive solutions to keep people out and to better 

identify when people break in. 

Where there has been less investment and focus is on addressing the broader 

issues related to what it means to be a digital society. It is evident that we no 

longer can treat the Internet as an alternate reality. We have one life and that life 

exists both physically and digitally at the same time. Whether we are harmed 

digitally or physically it directly impacts our life. As such we need to start thinking 

differently about the problems we face today. 

We need to address issues such as: 

Data Ownership & Management: Technology firms and businesses have been 

defining data ownership to meet their interests. It is time for legislative and policymaking bodies to begin looking at data from the rights of an individual and 

populations, like children and senior citizens, whose voice is often overlooked. 

Should digital data be treated as property? Should individuals be able to retain 

rights over their data? Should individuals and organizations be able to share their 

data but still retain rights and ownership of the data being shared? If so, should 

we reduce or control the amount of data that is copied and replicated into the 

databases of others? Should others that need access to our data request it rather 

than horde copies of it? Limiting data duplication ought to improve security as it 

reduces the number of opportunities from which it can be stolen. This is a 

dialogue that must begin in now. 

Rules & Regulations: Now that we have become a digital society we need to 

start considering new social norms – norms embodied in our rules, regulations, 

laws as well as social etiquette. Interacting with others whether socially or 

3 http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3135617 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

transacting business ought not be very different from a policy standpoint than it is 

in the physical world. We need to look at establishing boundaries for how we 

should interact together; boundaries that are embodied within new and updated 

policies. How should those boundaries be established? Are these boundaries 

similar to the rules, regulations and laws that have been established in the 

physical world? We need to start these conversations. 

Technical Education – Throughout history, when society went through great 

innovation transitions it became critical to ensure that there were enough skilled 

workers to support the new technologies. Cyberspace is no different. Given that 

we are in fact a digital society now; these skills are becoming mandatory. What 

can we do to ensure that more students are trained with the basic skills for this 

new world? How can we start training and exposing students at a younger age? 

How can we ensure that more people have the skills to support this new 

infrastructure that is cyberspace? 

Cyber Education – While not everyone will be interested in or well suited for 

technical jobs within cyberspace, whether our children become doctors, small 

business owners, teachers or regardless of their profession—technology will be a 

part of their jobs and lives. We all need to understand how to live safely in this 

new world. In the past, much effort has gone into teaching people, young and old, 

how to interact in the world. We teach children how to behave in public. We teach 

people how to drive. We educate people on health issues such as preventing 

mosquito borne illnesses or sexually transmitted diseases. It is just as important 

that everyone learn basic skills to interact safely within the digital world. Each of 

us must take personal responsibility for our actions in both the digital and 

physical world. What does it mean to take personal responsibility in the digital 

world? How is this taught? When is it taught? 

Progress being made to address the challenges; 

Progress is being made. We are seeing new and improved technologies in the 

defensive and investigative tools for cybersecurity. New armies of security 

specialists are building better intrusion detection devices, better forensic 

capabilities and collaborating more and more. This is great progress. Progress is 

also being made, albeit slowly, in the areas of digital identity and education. 

We are witnessing: 

Data Ownership & Management: 

New technology that gives individuals, organizations and companies control over 

their data and the ability to secure it is beginning to come to market. It’s being 

developed based upon a vision for the Internet which takes it back to its 

decentralized and distributed roots with no central servers and server farms. 

They are also introducing the capabilities where individuals, organizations and 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

companies can exert control and ownership over their data. They are launching 

peer-to-peer networks that rely on linked connections, encryption and identity to 

provide individuals the ability to explicitly and selectively share while retaining 

rights over their data. There are no central administrators with the single magic 

key, rather individuals maintain their own secure keys stored across networks. 

This same technology also limits the amount of data that needs to be copied into 

databases of third parties. Third parties will no longer need to retain copies of 

their customer's personal data. They will, instead, be able to ask the customer for 

it, when needed, by making a query to the customer’s instance of their personal 

data. 

Customer’s always retain ownership and control over whether to share it in realtime. This same technology also limits the amount of data that needs to be 

copied into databases of third parties. Third parties will no longer need to retain 

copies of their customer's personal data. They will, instead, be able to ask the 

customer for it, when needed, by making a query to the customer’s instance of 

their personal data. Customer’s always retain ownership and control over 

whether to share it in real-time. This same technology also limits the amount of 

data that needs to be copied into databases of third parties. Third parties will no 

longer need to retain copies of their customer's personal data. They will, instead, 

be able to ask the customer for it, when needed, by making a query to the 

customer’s instance of their personal data. Customer’s always retain ownership 

and control over whether to share it in real-time. 

Companies like Heuro Labs, Solid, MaidSafe, and CynjaTech treat customers 

like individuals who retain control of their personal data. It’s an entirely new 

method for security and data management. 

Rules & Regulations: 

The ability for everyone – people, organizations, business – to exert control over 

their data is not only important in finding ways to limit the opportunities for 

hackers to steal it. It is also important in enabling a digital citizen’s reasonable 

expectations of privacy. 

The conversation over digital rights has been increasingly occurring at both 

public policy levels and within organizations and groups. Governments around 

the world are beginning to enact guidelines and regulations that is the start of 

establishing digital rights for citizens. The epicenter of these conversations began 

in Europe but it has also lately been occurring here like the debate surrounding 

the EU-US Privacy Shield. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

																																																							

One example of this in the United States is when Justice Sotomayor indicated 

that we may need to re-examine past doctrine regarding what makes up 

property. She wrote in the ‘United States v. Jones, 

More fundamentally, it may be necessary to reconsider the premise that an individual has 

no reasonable expectation of privacy in information voluntarily disclosed to third parties. 

This approach is ill suited to the digital age, in which people reveal a great deal of 

information about themselves to third parties in the course of carrying out mundane tasks. 

...

But whatever the societal expectations, they can attain constitutionally protected status 

only if our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence ceases to treat secrecy as a prerequisite for 

privacy. I would not assume that all information voluntarily disclosed to some member of 

the public for a limited purpose is, for that reason alone, disentitled to Fourth Amendment 

protection. 

United States v. Jones, 565 U.S.___, Docket no. 10-1259 (2012) 

Technical Education 

Cybersecurity is a field that demands skilled professionals who possess the 

foundational knowledge, education and thought leadership necessary to confront 

the difficulties that accompany constant technological change. Advanced threat 

vectors, emerging technologies and a myriad of regulations require cybersecurity 

professionals to be skilled in technology as well as business and communications. 

The numbers clearly show it’s important we talk with boys and girls about 

cybersecurity as a career option. Sadly, according to the ISACA 2015 Global 

Cybersecurity Status Report4

, 77 percent of women say that no high school 

teacher or guidance counselor mentioned cybersecurity as a career. For men it’s 

67 percent. That’s why we, as a cybersecurity industry, need to expand our 

outreach because our efforts might be introducing a career path that no one else 

has mentioned as a possibility. 

There are an estimated 410,000 to 510,000 information security professionals 

worldwide, and jobs are expected to increase 53 percent by 2018 with over 4.2 

million jobs available. However, recent studies and reports suggest that there are 

simply not enough skilled professionals to fill them. With this disparity, it's clear 

there is a gap between STEM education offered in K-12 schools and the actual 

demand upon graduation. 

Technical education is more than offering coding camp, designing a website or 

hosting a STEM weekend event. It's teaching teachers how to understand 

technology. It's giving our schools the digital tools needed to educate about 

technology, rather than another learning management system to track grades. It's 

helping kids learn about how the Internet works from the moment they enter 

4 http://www.isaca.org/Pages/Cybersecurity-Global-Status-Report.aspx 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	 	

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

school, because the technical skills needed are more than what can be learned 

in an after school program. 

Cyber Education: 

Up until to now, general cyber education has been relegated to public service 

announcements with catchy taglines or a few basic lessons in our children's 

classrooms. That is not enough for all of us to navigate our new digital worlds 

successfully. 

Cyber education must not only be a curriculum, it must become a part of the 

technology that we use. As we browse websites, download apps and use new 

software, technology firms can implement cyber education into the user 

experience. Sometimes, it's as simple as letting a person know the potential 

consequences of their actions and other times it is being transparent about their 

privacy practices and how that person's data will be shared or sold. 

While cyber education campaigns focus on think before you click, many 

technologies are designed to get users to click before they think. It's a gap the 

tech industry must consider and they innovate the future of software and devices. 

The most promising approaches to addressing the 

challenges; 

Engineering Challenge

From an engineering perspective there is much work happening now to provide 

infrastructure for enabling Self-Sovereign identity. This term "Self-Sovereign" 

describes the concept of individuals, and businesses/organizations, being able to 

own their digital-selves – being able to own and control their data, being able to 

share it under revocable terms while still claiming ownership and control, being 

able to interact and collaborate with others while still retaining control over the 

digital assets that they have the rights to. 

CynjaTech is one of the first developers to bring platforms, applications and 

services to market that treat customers as Self-Sovereign individuals rather than 

users. We’re among the first in the world to develop technology that moves the 

Internet and its users into a decentralized network. The individuals and 

companies that participate in this decentralized network each own and control 

their own data. They are able to store their data wherever they choose and 

provide revocable permission to CynjaTech applications, such as CynjaSpace, 

access to the data to use our services. We never make copies of it – we are 

prohibited from doing so unless provided specific permission. We are eliminating 

today’s security and privacy problems that resulted from today's centralized 

model. 
 

 

 

 

 

	 	

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	 	

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 		

	 	

 

 

 

CynjaTech is part of a growing list of developers who are committed to the 

concepts of Self-Sovereign Identity and the belief that people need to be able to 

control and take personal responsibility for their digital-selves. This development 

though is in very early stages of coming to market. The ecosystem still needs 

nurturing and support at many levels. 

Education Challenge

How can we create a cyberspace with training wheels for children that educates 

about making smart choices during every step of their early digital lives? Children 

learn how to ride a bike with their parents support and safety equipment so they 

survive any falls with minimal bruising. However in cyberspace, it's like we throw 

our children on motorcycles without helmets and hope for the best. Or we rely on 

technologies that are designed to fence in or spy on children without teaching 

them at the moment they make a poor choice. 

At CynjaTech we believe cyber education must start at the moment a child taps a 

device. Given that toddlers are now online, it means we must not only offer 

education to kids but also their parents. These are conversations that today's 

parent never experienced growing up so we believe educational efforts to help 

parents navigate this world are just as important as educating kids in a classroom. 

Our technology brings the conversation directly to children, parents and 

educators through interactive tools, games and educational resources. 

Public	Policy Challenge

In our nation's capital, more queries and clarifications are being issued asking 

technology companies practices surrounding collection, use and security of 

individual data. We can see a growing concern among legislators about how user 

data such as location, communications, and physical movement are being used, 

what precautions are being taken to protect this data and whether it’s being sold 

to third parties. As more is learned, the policy community will begin 

understanding the full extent how individual rights in our digital world has suffered 

and, hopefully, support technology that fixes the problem rather than those 

technologies designed to mask an exacerbating problem of data mining. 

What can or should be done now or within the next 1-2 

years to better address the challenges; 

New Technology Innovations

Companies that are developing the next generation of security and data 

management platforms need financial support for research & development along 

with operating capital. Because the technology companies that dominate today 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	 	

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

are built upon systems and business models that need a centralized database; 

this makes acquiring operating capital a challenge for those early stage 

companies trying to build a decentralized secure network infrastructure. 

Conventional wisdom means investors look for companies who are replicating 

the large companies models that exist today. Early stage companies that are 

trying to give people the ability to protect and control data are at a disadvantage 

when it comes to raising necessary capital. 

Supporting	Education

Each day, the cybersecurity industry dedicates itself to protecting their client’s 

most valuable assets. They spend countless hours focused on keeping data, 

intellectual property, systems and files out of the hands of cyber criminals. Their 

clients win and they win. But what are we doing about educating people—the 

individuals, each of us who use devices every day—about security? Not enough. 

You'll find corporate social responsibility programs that address the issue but 

education is usually relegated as a low tier activity with little financial investment. 

Why is this important? All of us are experiencing the negative consequences of 

the Internet today. Maybe it's identity theft or our children downloading spyware 

into our family’s devices. But unlike the industry's clients—who have budgets, IT 

managers, lawyers and executives demanding attention—individuals, families 

and children have no one at the corporate boardroom table demanding their 

security. Perhaps in the whirlwind of dollars and income statements, businesses 

underestimate their responsibility to each of us and our family. That's why these 

early cyber awareness programs are an important first step in what will be an 

extensive road of developing effective cyber education and technologies. It's only 

through education that we can empower people to protect themselves. 

Education	Moves Beyond Awareness

From a policy perspective, cyber awareness campaigns should not be confused 

with the holistic approaches necessary in an extensive cyber education program. 

If we truly want a secure future, we must provide education at every level from 

preschools to senior centers, scouts to boardrooms. Education is our collective 

social responsibility to help our digital lives tomorrow. The cybersecurity industry, 

must approach education with the same level of importance as building a 

defensive solution for the next big enterprise client. Policy must encourage 

businesses to support cyber education in a more serious manner than what is 

happening today. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	 	

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What should be done over the next decade to better 

address the challenges; and 

Empower	Individuals	in	Cyberspace

In the next decade, technology must move toward a more reliable, secure and 

empowering Internet for all of us who use it. With the increasing numbers of 

devices expected to be connecting to the Internet over the next decade, we will 

generate more and more data and, with the current technology practices of 

today, lose greater control over our digital lives. And the artificial intelligence 

developed as a result of this data sucking, along with decision-making software 

means who and how we share that data will become more important. For cyber 

criminals our data will become more valuable. We are at the turning point where 

technology must advance to provide individuals control—where they first grant 

permission before providing access to their data—to those tech applications, 

platforms and software in an easy to understand experience. 

Learn	New Life	Skills

Our society has become a digital one and we must learn a new set of life skills. 

Education programs should be put in place that are reminiscent of past programs 

to fight problems in health, forest fires, crime etc. We need to embark on an all 

out effort in cybersecurity education. We need K-12 education programs that 

provide our youth with the tools to be tomorrow’s protectors of this new digital 

world. We should have programs such as public service announcements that (1) 

teach people how to protect themselves in this new digital world and (2) 

encourages the young to go into technical fields that will improve cyberspace. 

This should have a similar feel of urgency as when President Kennedy started us 

on the path to getting to the moon and back. And then we should provide 

teachers with technically accurate materials to teach these important lessons. 

Understand Digital Democracy

The Internet genie has been let out of the bottle and there is no going back. We 

as a society need to move from today’s ‘Wild West’ Internet to one that is based 

on rules, laws and social etiquette. It is imperative for policymakers to truly 

understand the cybersecurity issues that are occurring today, and that will get 

worse tomorrow, as an epidemic. They should begin debates, dialogues and 

conversation on what it means to be a digital citizen in a democracy in order to 

better formulate policies that will benefit all of us while allowing technology to 

advance society. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future challenges that may arise and recommended 

actions that individuals, organizations, and 

governments can take to best position themselves today 

to meet those challenges. 

Children are becoming increasingly victimized by cyber crimes. While the 

ubiquity and proliferation of technology has brought us many benefits, sadly we 

also see its downfalls because too much of today’s technology exploits children 

or takes advantage of parent’s naiveté or confusion. They continue to hide 

behind soft regulations or weak privacy policies and focus on ways to profit from 

our children’s innocence. 

Let’s just take a quick look at the threat landscape that’s emerged for children in 

only the past few months. 

A maker of digital toys for children, said it was hacked putting the personal 

information of five million people, including children, at risk. The data stolen 

included the adult’s profile information, IP address, mailing addresses, emails as 

well as the names, photos, gender and birth dates of children. That data could 

allow someone to link a child to his or her parent and determine that child’s 

physical address. 

Another children's media company was hit with a data breach that compromised 

millions of user accounts, mostly those of children and teens. The information 

included first and last names, birthdays, genders, email addresses, country of 

origin, password hint questions and corresponding answers. 

Sadly, as adults, we’ve been accustomed to data breaches exposing our own 

information or the acceptance of being the victim of digital crimes. But now the 

game has changed and our children are being targeted. That should make every 

parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle extremely concerned for all the kids in their 

lives. Cyber breaches are no longer something to ignore or laugh off. It’s no 

longer just your future on the line. It’s your child’s entire digital life. 

What we’re learning is that apps and software specifically designed to help 

parents keep their kids safe are, instead, placing those very same children at 

risk. Earlier this year, a child tracker app, was leaking a huge database with 6.8 

million private text messages, 1.8 million images and 1,700 child profiles 

containing data from their Android and iPhones. 

We also saw the Identity Theft Resource Center issue an advisory for parents, 

instructing them to look out for companies collecting kids’ biometric information 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

	 	 	 	 	 	 	

 

 

 

 

																																																							

		

for a Child ID Kit that parents can use in case of abduction5. On the surface it 

sounds like these companies have children’s safety in mind. Rather we need to 

be educating parents to ask the right questions before providing their child's data 

to any company. 

You don’t have to be a police detective to connect these dots. Our children are at 

risk, and we as a cybersecurity industry continue to downplay the risk in the 

public eye. Why? Because it’s not good for business. We have to change the 

public’s view of the real risks they face in their daily digital lives. But how can we 

change their perception of risk, if they have no control, nor responsibility for, their 

data and ultimately their digital lives? 

Additional Areas of Topics & Challenges 

1. Emerging technology trends and innovations; the effect these 

technology trends and innovations will have on the digital economy; 

and the effect these technology trends and innovations will have on 

cybersecurity. 

In our above comments we discussed the concepts individuals being able to own 

and control their data. These concepts enable people to share data and to create 

relationships with others, including businesses and governments, through explicit 

and transparent actions and agreements. These concepts are becoming known 

as Self Sovereign identity. This is a trend that is being enabled via new 

innovations around decentralization, distributed and cryptographic technologies. 

While these may be new innovations they are actually old concepts. These new 

technologies are enabling us to better model the natural world for the first time. In 

the natural world we all know how to establish trust with people we know, 

typically it starts with reputation. In the natural world we have natural boundaries 

that allow us to protect property and family. In the natural world we have 

inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These new 

technologies are enabling these same rights to enter the cyber world. It is not 

clear, at this point, what this will look like but it is happening. It is imperative that 

we begin education programs that tie our natural and digital worlds together. 

2. Economic and other incentives for enhancing cybersecurity.

The Internet is still a brave new world that is in need of taming. This is not so 

different than the rules and laws that have been put in place in the natural world. 

As our world becomes more and more digital it becomes more and more 

important to provide infrastructure support for that world. 

5 http://www.idtheftcenter.org/Scams/scammy-child-id-kit-companies-coming-to-a-town-nearyou.html 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 1950s—it was determined that we needed a national highway system that 

lead to major infrastructure investment. 

In the 1960s—it was determined that we needed to enter the space race leading 

to major infrastructure investment. 

In the 1970s—it was decided that we needed a resilient network that was 

resistant to single points of failure. This great infrastructure investment led to the 

Internet we know today. 

We are witnessing tremendous growth that was started by that original 

investment. However, it is not without problems. 

We now need to embark on another great infrastructure effort. This time the effort 

is less visible – it is in cyberspace. The infrastructure investment needs to come 

in the form of (1) education of everyone and (2) innovation incentives to build 

better solutions. 

3. Government-private sector coordination and cooperation on 

cybersecurity. 

The Cyber Information-Sharing Act (CISA) that coordinates sharing between 

government and companies in order to identify potential cyber-threats is a start in 

this effort. 

However with CISA, we miss a critical component in sharing—public education 

Public health works when the public is involved and motivated to act in its own 

best interests. And this is why preventing cyber-crimes requires far more than the 

government and private sector sharing information. It requires involving the 

public who are at risk, which is to say all of us who use the Internet. We click on 

malicious links, download infected attachments, or fall victim to online scams, 

which means we are often the point of entry for these devastating attacks on 

large organizations. 

For government to truly make an impact and succeed it should expand far 

beyond collaboration of a select group of cyber-insiders. It should promote and 

support initiatives designed to teach everyone, young and old, about staying 

healthy in their digital world and learning the warning signs of cyber attacks so 

we can prevent digital crime rather than focusing on efforts that only examine a 

disease that’s already taken hold. 

It is the private sector that also needs to provide the cyber education, combined 

technology and security that enable all individuals to make safe choices online. 

This is more than a flashy tagline campaign, it’s developing actual technology 

that helps people safely navigate their digital lives. That’s why it is in the best 

interest of the country for the government to continue to invest in raw research & 

development in partnership with private industry and academia. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. The role(s) of the government in enhancing cybersecurity for the 

private sector. 

Education is crucial to enhancing cybersecurity in the public. We must remember 

children are the future workforce who will be defending us on the front lines of 

cyber attacks. They must learn what cyberspace truly is—a place that’s anything 

but a fairytale, a place with real consequences instead of predictable happy 

endings, and a place that’s based on actual systems and programs developed by 

real people. The government can work more closely with the private sector 

cybersecurity companies in order to utilize their professional expertise for the 

development of curriculum that's based on actual technology, threats and 

systems. 

While technology may seem like magic, it is not. It's science. That’s what 

together, as government and the private sector, can help children understand. 

5. Performance measures for national-level cybersecurity policies; 

and related near-term and long-term goals. 

Mostly we see the headlines focused on large cyber compromises where adults 

are victims and those are not showing any signs of slowing down. Then let's look 

at what’s happening to our most vulnerable population, from child abductions and 

murders that started with unmonitored conversations on social media 

applications like or the disregard for a child’s privacy in the newest wave of 

summer games apps. When 77 percent of children have downloaded a virus, 63 

percent have responded to online scams or even 33 percent have received 

aggressive sexual solicitation online—one has to wonder if our current 

technologies and methods of public education are the best we can offer. 

When cyber crimes decrease, when identity theft starts to drop, when only a 

small percentage of children are downloading malware to their devices, when the 

majority of people surveyed say they have control over their digital lives and 

when we see a reduction in children receiving unwanted sexual solicitations, can 

we consider progress is being made. 

6. Complexity of cybersecurity terminology and potential approaches 

to resolve, including common lexicons. 

Are these words too difficult for you? Basilisk, snuffleupagus, 

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Quidditch, Oompa Loompa. I hope not! They’re 

all part of the magical world of children’s literature. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give many adults these words: Darknet, cipher, binary, encryption, proxy server. 

All of a sudden, we hear a different story...these words are too hard and 

complicated. The difference is we approach Dr. Seuss with an open mind, 

prepared to let our imaginations absorb all sorts of meanings. And we learned 

that a fizza-ma-wizza-ma-dill is a bird that eats only pine trees and spits out the 

bark. 

Talk to an adult about technology—well, they get a bit freaked out. Why? 

Because they’ve already decided the digital world is too difficult to comprehend— 

no matter how simple the concept. And yet, that same adult is more than happy 

to help their child figure out how Quidditch is played. 

At CynjaTech, we argue that a child’s understanding of a darknet is more 

valuable to their future than learning the diet of an imaginary bird or the rules of a 

sport played on flying broomsticks. In today’s era of digital crime, kids need to 

know that a darknet is what cyber criminals often use to hide their illegal 

activities. 

That’s the conversation we as digital parents and families need to be having 

today at work and at home. We need to talk about the risks children face when 

they enter the digital world. When kids are being exploited, harmed or their future 

digital lives damaged by what is happening online, saying cybersecurity is too 

difficult of topic for kids to understand is no longer acceptable. It’s time to say 

technology can do better for kids. And then do something about it. That’s the 

progress we need to make. 

Technology that combines security, privacy and education together is how we 

can best address educating the public. Our efforts bring the understanding of 

public education into the technology we use, rather than just focusing on the next 

slick tagline which eventually becomes white noise instead of true action. We 

need to talk about the risks children face when they enter the digital world. When 

kids are being exploited, harmed or their future digital lives damaged by what is 

happening online, saying cybersecurity is too difficult of topic to understand is no 

longer acceptable. It’s time to say technology can do better for kids and for all of 

us. And then do something about it. That’s the progress we need to make. 

##END##