Garcia remarked, "The developments we have made in strengthening Federal systems, developing a preparedness and deterrence strategy, and enhancing our operational cyber response capabilities have been aggressive, but our work has just begun. It's an evolutionary process." He then said "...in spite of our best efforts cyberspace is far from secure."
Below are more of his remarks about cyber security.
"But despite the growing impact of such efforts, the exponential growth in cyber security incidents is likely to continue. Why? Opportunity. Where there's opportunity, there will be danger. Knowing cyber security will forever be a part of the Internet, we have to be that much more vigilant.
"Just these numbers illustrate the problem. Of the nearly 63,000 cyber incidents reported to US-CERT over the last three years, nearly 4,000 were policy violations, more than 4,600 malware findings, and a staggering number of nearly 42,000 were phishing attempts. The significance is that no matter what form the attacks take, they continue to come. We must meet these incidents with preparation and resolve.
"Our task to secure our systems has no simple solution and no foreseeable end.
"Regardless of the threat, whether the latest scam or virus, cyberspace will continue to suffer from the incurable disease of criminal intent, which will only be encouraged by our complacency. We as a Nation must inoculate ourselves with every keystroke.
"To keep our cyberspace secure, we need every individual and enterprise user -- every man, woman and child using networked technology - to take personal responsibility for securing their part of cyberspace.
"Not all Americans can write computer code but each of us can take reasonable precautions with our technology.
"You don't need to know how to build an engine to safely drive a car.
"While we may not be able to cure the disease, we can: Deny our adversaries targets of opportunity; Build systems that are extraordinarily difficult to exploit; and Extract a high cost, so attacks are prohibitively expensive and detection assured.
"We've got to make the United States the most dangerous place in the real world for cyber criminals to do business.
"The stakes could not be higher.
"The front lines in the struggle to secure our future will be fought from: Millions of hand-held portable networked devices; From every home, classroom and office; And from the vast array of infrastructures, factories, and worksites interconnected to the online world.
"From each of these virtual addresses our personal security and national defense will hang in the balance. Our Nation will be only as strong as our individual dedication and perseverance. We all have to share in the burden, because we all depend on shared critical infrastructures and systems to maintain our national security, fuel our economy, and support our way of life.
"Cyberspace reflects the beauty and genius of the open societies that created the online world and allowed it to flourish. Protecting cyberspace without changing its spirit of openness will challenge us all. We have to balance the temptation to sacrifice the best of cyberspace in the name of precaution with the urgent need to share our great experiment -- the digital democracy -- with the rest of the world."
Read Garcia's Entire Speech
