Enrique Salem believes the future of warfare may come from the Web.

‘Instead of war planes flying overhead and dropping bombs, Internet attackers are resorting to a cyberwarfare perspective,’ he said.

Salem, chief executive officer and president of Symantec, a company that produces Internet security software, presented a lecture Wednesday in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium. His speech highlighted global cybersecurity and the online threats individuals face in both the public and private sectors. The lecture was sponsored by Syracuse University and JPMorgan Chase & Co. 

Salem joined President Barack Obama’s advisory board for technology in March 2011.

In his presentation, Salem emphasized the lack of science, technology, engineering and math majors who graduate in the United States annually — 70,000, a far cry from India’s 700,000 or China’s 1 million. He predicted a lack of technical talent in computer science and programming-related jobs will adversely affect the U.S. job market within the next few years.

Salem said he and his company are dedicated to preventing Internet threats from hackers. He noted the July 2010 computer worm that attacked computer infrastructures globally. The computer worm even attempted to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, he said.

Symantec works with governments, other security companies and people within JPMorgan Chase to figure out the next frontier of security, Salem said. 

Within the next year or two, the world will see a new set of attacks centered on iPhones, Androids and other smartphones, he said. These attacks would come from downloaded applications, which often collect personal information about the user, he said. 

Eva Choi, a freshman information management and technology major who attended Salem’s lecture, said she agrees smartphones are not very secure, especially when people use them to make credit card transactions. 

‘More people will own and use smartphones in the next few years — there’s a huge market for them,’ Choi said. ‘People like the ability to do a lot on one device.’

Salem added that in order to keep intellectual property on smartphones, better security is necessary. 

‘A four-digit PIN is not enough to keep away threats,’ he said. 

Security exposure is created when people reveal personal information on social network sites like Facebook, Salem said.

Simplified security processes like geolocation, in which a company can tell people via satellite where their phone is located, would allow people to feel more secure about keeping intellectual property on their phones.

Frank Bisignano, chief administrative officer of JPMorgan Chase, hosted the event with the help of Eric Spina, SU’s vice chancellor and provost, and Guy Chiarello, chief information officer of JPMorgan Chase.

Students at SU have a fairly mobile network, which will shape the future of technology in the United States, Chiarello said. SU and JPMorgan Chase, which has an office in Lyman Hall, have partnered to promote better security practices for students, he said. 

Said Chiarello: ‘Lyman Hall is the beginning of what we are building as a center of excellence for our security practices at JPMorgan Chase & Co.’

mekosoff@syr.edu

Published on March 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm