White House cybersecurity summit to feature address from Apple CEO Tim Cook
Apple's chief executive will reportedly be among those speaking to participants at Friday's White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, an event designed to bring together representatives from all sides of the cybersecurity and privacy debate.
At the summit, President Obama is widely expected to discuss his new cybersecurity "executive action" which will call for, among other things, increased cooperation between U.S. technology companies and the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. Cook's participation in the event was first noted by The Hill.
It is unclear exactly what role Cook will play, but several of the scheduled panels fall within the scope of his interests as Apple's CEO. Among those are a discussion of public-private collaboration for cybersecurity, improving cybersecurity practices at consumer-oriented businesses and organizations, promoting more secure payment technologies, and improving authentication by moving beyond the password.
Cook is uniquely positioned to speak on the latter topics. Apple Pay, the company's NFC-based mobile payment system, is designed with a number of security and privacy safeguards including network-level tokenization and biometric authentication via Touch ID.
Apple has also opened Touch ID itself to developers, allowing those who wish to eschew password-based authentication to do so by tapping into the iPhone and iPad's on-device fingerprint authentication. Numerous companies have adopted the system for their iOS apps, including financial firms like American Express.
The White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection will be held on Friday, Feb. 13 at Stanford University.
At the summit, President Obama is widely expected to discuss his new cybersecurity "executive action" which will call for, among other things, increased cooperation between U.S. technology companies and the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. Cook's participation in the event was first noted by The Hill.
It is unclear exactly what role Cook will play, but several of the scheduled panels fall within the scope of his interests as Apple's CEO. Among those are a discussion of public-private collaboration for cybersecurity, improving cybersecurity practices at consumer-oriented businesses and organizations, promoting more secure payment technologies, and improving authentication by moving beyond the password.
Cook is uniquely positioned to speak on the latter topics. Apple Pay, the company's NFC-based mobile payment system, is designed with a number of security and privacy safeguards including network-level tokenization and biometric authentication via Touch ID.
Apple has also opened Touch ID itself to developers, allowing those who wish to eschew password-based authentication to do so by tapping into the iPhone and iPad's on-device fingerprint authentication. Numerous companies have adopted the system for their iOS apps, including financial firms like American Express.
The White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection will be held on Friday, Feb. 13 at Stanford University.
Comments
In before some idiot claims Cook is going to give the government a back door into iPhones.
Only in China
I'd find it ironic or facetious (or both) if Google were to speak about Android security...
How about, showing up, because he has an environment that has security? I mean seriously when was the last time your iPhone was hijacked by malware, or the last time your whole system was encrypted, for ransom?
^^^ True, I've never jailbroken mine, and I've never had any security issues.
That would be every foreign country where Apple sells products. Would be better for Apple to remain apolitical and not attend high profile White House-sponsored events.
A teachable moment to a clueless president.
A teachable moment implies the ability to listen. I've seen no evidence of listening by this constitutional scholar.
This dog+pony from the creators of healthcare.gov is about making citizens so fearful, they will not protest when the feds poke ever deeper into their packets.
Actually, not the feds, but federal subcontractors who've secretly contributed mightily to campaigns.
Government of the people, by the oligarchs, for the oligarchs, shall not perish from this earth.
Apple has a pretty terrible record when it comes to enterprise level security. They very much take an "our way is good enough" approach and don't participate in the open standards.
(Woohoo! 700th post. Yay me.)
A teachable moment implies the ability to listen. I've seen no evidence of listening by this constitutional scholar.
This dog+pony from the creators of healthcare.gov is about making citizens so fearful, they will not protest when the feds poke ever deeper into their packets.
Actually, not the feds, but federal subcontractors who've secretly contributed mightily to campaigns.
Government of the people, by the oligarchs, for the oligarchs, shall not perish from this earth.
Can we try to keep our political opinions out of this thread? It will only derail any meaningful discussion.
Apple has a pretty terrible record when it comes to enterprise level security. They very much take an "our way is good enough" approach and don't participate in the open standards.
(Woohoo! 700th post. Yay me.)
That might be in part because they feel that sometimes the existing open standards are not great and that Apple can do it better.
Ok, apologies for the sarcastic political snark.
Apple wants to repatriate $80-90 billion at low tax rates and Obama wants to burnish his technical bona fides after the disastrous healthcare.gov rollout.
In addition, after the Snowden revelations, the government needs to justify further intrusions by the security-industrial complex.
Finally, the Silicon Valley tech business is busy "enhancing shareholder value" with a bogus "STEM talent shortage" designed to justify the reduction of tech salaries by a third, all while eviscerating the last bastion of middle class upward mobility.
Tinfoil hats aside, there's a reason why the last great Republican president (Eisenhower) warned the American people that military contractors presented a bigger threat to freedom than the communists.
Ike said this at the height of the Cold War. I don't see where this threat has diminished in the least.
So, a discussion of politics in a tech forum is appropriate. I'll dial down the sarcasm and snark in future.
You call this "dialing it down"? The article relates to cybersecurity - do you have anything meaningful to contribute on this particular subject? It will be interesting to see you draw a direct connection between Eisenhower and today's specific cybersecurity threats.
Eisenhower warned of the uncontrolled growth of the "military-industrial complex", which certainly would include the "spy and pry" operations of the state (under both political majority parties), which continually tread upon the constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens.
How about, showing up, because he has an environment that has security? I mean seriously when was the last time your iPhone was hijacked by malware, or the last time your whole system was encrypted, for ransom?
This actually happened to a networked drive in my workplace last week. Cryptlocker virus. Thankfully we were able to just restore from a backup.
Finally got around to watching Tim Cook's comments at the summit, and of course, I was not disappointed. What a great presentation. I love how idealistic Apple is, but more importantly, that this idealism is backed up by practicality (I believe idealism for its own sake typically does more harm than good, regardless of the intentions). I loved how Tim gave a little bow at the end, a nice touch. I am in constant admiration that Apple can remain true to its humanistic ideals despite how large it has become.
Edit: I fully agree that Apple should remain apolitical, and focus on the ideas they value, and not align themselves with overarching ideologies or political parties. I hope Apple will remain just as engaged when there is a republican president.