Frank James ’79, led an interactive session on how the increasing threat to U.S. cybersecurity is also a threat to our broader national security and individual security.

James says that cybersecurity breaches are the “most underappreciated threat” to security. 13 students and four faculty members attended the discussion by James, who is a former journalist for the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post, and current media strategist for WilmerHale law firm.

James argued that the ability of foreign powers to hack into American information is an issue the next President should take very seriously. According to James, there is still general confusion on how to respond to cyber-attacks because they are relatively new to the world of security threats. Their ability to wreak havoc is not entirely “appreciated,” said James.

“What [is] going to sensitize them is when we have the grid taken down on the East coast,” stated James. “I just hope it doesn’t take a cyber 9/11 to sensitize the American people.”

Referencing the recent discovery of the Russian government’s hacking campaign of the U.S. Democratic Party’s emails so close to the upcoming election, James expressed amazement towards foreign leaders’ ability to meddle. “There is another power that is actually trying to change the course of our political system through releasing emails… wow, that’s the thing of novels.”

“Any nation with a few smart engineering types or coders or hackers can take out a good part of infrastructure in another nation,” said James. He explained that the nature of these attacks are new and different, because any nation has the ability to engage in this sort of conflict.

This talk was the first in what will be a series of smaller discussion based events on current affairs that are not part of the mainstream media.

According to Tara Fischer, associate dean of Academic Advising, “‘The Ripped from the Headlines’ series will encompass many topics over the course of the next year that are, as the name suggests, ripped from the headlines.” The next topic will be ‘Triage and Public Health.’

Because each presenter will be a Dickinson alumnus, Fischer believes that the series will also be “…a fun and meaningful way for alumni to build relationships with students and members of the college community around shared topics of interest.”

The event was held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Althouse 109, and was sponsored by the Office of Academic Advising and Phi Beta Kappa.