Like most aspects of modern existence, more and more of our financial lives have migrated wholly to the digital realm. With the benefits of ease that our Internet allows us, that transition also raises numerous - and dangerous - threats to national security, our money, and the systems we use to store and transfer it. Cybersecurity is one of the most formidable challenges that the world faces today. From cyberattacks by foreign adversaries like China and Russia, the explosion of cryptocurrency, the advancement of ransomware, phishing, surveillance apps, spying software, and logic bombs, and the increasing savvy and daring shown by Internet hackers, the next financial panic is likely to be delivered to us through use or abuse of technology. In Unhackable, author and financial services and technology expert Thomas P. Vartanian exposes the vulnerabilities of the many networks that we rely on today, as well as the threats facing the integrity of our national security and financial services sector. Recent cybersecurity failures like the Solar Winds attack, which gave hackers believed to be directed by Russian intelligence unprecedented access to federal agencies and private corporations, and the breach of Equifax, which compromised the data of nearly half of all US citizens, have revealed the inadequacies of our current computing systems and the dysfunction of the bureaucracy that oversees them. Even further, attacks like these underscore the need for a centralized and empowered government administration charged with protecting our country's data and information. Vartanian offers comprehensive solutions to the problems we face: fortifying our Internet with channels dedicated to financial transactions that use heightened authentication, governance, and enforcement; incorporating the benefits that blockchain has to offer; and investing more in the rapidly developing world of quantum computing are all necessary steps to shoring up our online security. This incisive and important book investigates the creation and history of our financial Internet, the vulnerabilities of our current data storage and sharing platforms, the pitfalls and potential that cryptocurrency holds, the promise that quantum computing and the blockchain offer, and how we can - and must - make a stronger and safer Internet.
Thomas P. Vartanian has been involved in US financial services since 1976. Throughout his career, he has represented parties in 30 of the 50 largest bank and S&L failures in the country. He served in the Reagan administration as General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation during the S&L Crisis, and before that as Special Assistant to the chief counsel at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Carter administration. He was the Chair of the American Bar Association's Cyberspace Law Committee between 1998 and 2002. After retiring from the practice of law, he became the Executive Director of the Program on Financial Regulation and Technology at George Mason University's Scalia Law School, where he was also a Professor of Law. He has been an adjunct professor teaching banking and financial technology law at Georgetown, George Washington, and Boston University law schools and has guest-lectured at Harvard Law School. He is the author of 200 Years of American Financial Panics and his articles have appeared in numerous publications around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The Washington Times, and American Banker.
"The greatest threat to today's global financial system is not financial risk or geopolitical uncertainty, but the danger of cyber-attack through a poorly defended Internet. In TheUnhackable Internet, Tom Vartanian describes in detail how we got to this point and suggests practicable steps that could make us safer. Most important, he makes clear that our openness to such attack is a choice, and one we can change. Governments and markets should listen."-Randal K. Quarles, Chairman and Founder of The Cynosure Group, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve System for Supervision, Chairman of the G-20's Financial Stability Board, member of the Federal Open Market Committee, and Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury "The UnhackableInternet brings order to the digital wild west. Data is the world's most valuable economic asset and yet we live in the age of eternal breach. Hindsight has proved the folly of Mark Zuckerberg's mantra 'move fast and break things.' We ignore the lessons of history at our peril; a less hackable Internet is the imperative of our time. Vartanian's compelling vision - achievable if we pull together - puts the adults back in charge of the Internet." - James Dever, Co-Founder and Principal at Lockhaven Solutions LLC and former U.S. Air Force Professor of Cyber Warfare and U.S. Army Cyber Warfare Judge Advocate "For anyone interested in the future of the internet, this book is a tour de force. 'Security' is the word that comes to mind for anyone developing a business over the internet. The Unhackable Internet provides an experienced and creative approach to dealing with the risks and threats to financial infrastructures exposed by internet growth. Vartanian clearly presents the past and present of online banking, engaging in a very much needed debate on the possible paths for the future of internet security. The Unhackable Internet leaves readers not only informed, but willing to move ahead with viable alternatives to keeping the internet in the boundaries of law and order without killing its creativity drive." - Sylvia Elaluf-Calderwood, PhD,Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics, Florida International University College of Business "Vartanian's tour de force analyzes a continuum of solutions to make the Internet safer and more unhackable. It lays out a sober assessment of the financial Armageddon, however unthinkable, that could be avoided but for the demoralizing and dispiriting failure of leadership which has followed a predictable cycle of attack, rinse, and repeat. The Unhackable Internet offers comprehensive and insightful cybersecurity solutions that just may change the Internet forever. It should be required reading every executive and policymaker." - Roslyn Layton, PhD, Aalborg University, Department of Electronic Systems, National Security Institute, George Mason University
