Fey LLC Article on Nation State Hacking Published in Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy

Fey LLC Principal Laura Clark Fey and Sarah D. Wiese have published “America the Vulnerable: The Nation State Hacking Threat to Our Economy, Our Privacy and Our Welfare” in the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 30, Issue 3 (September 2021).

About the Article

The article was catalyzed by the SolarWinds cyberattack, one of the most sophisticated and far-reaching nation state cyberattacks in history, in which Russian state-sponsored hackers compromised the supply chain of SolarWinds’ Orion software product and used it to infiltrate the networks of thousands of organizations, including multiple U.S. government agencies.

The article advocates for a whole-of-society response to nation state cyber threats, arguing that the scale and sophistication of these attacks requires coordinated action across government, the private sector, and civil society.

Key Topics Covered

• The SolarWinds attack and its implications for U.S. cybersecurity policy
• The anatomy of nation state cyberattacks and how they differ from criminal hacking
• The role of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in defending critical infrastructure
• Federal legislative and regulatory recommendations
• Practical organizational recommendations for reducing nation state cyber risk

Organizational Recommendations

The article provides concrete recommendations for organizations seeking to reduce their exposure to nation state cyber threats, including:

• Implementing supply chain security measures
• Adopting zero-trust security architectures
• Investing in security operations center (SOC) capabilities
• Developing and testing incident response plans
• Engaging with CISA resources and threat intelligence sharing

About the Authors

Laura Clark Fey is Principal at Fey LLC and has focused on data privacy, cybersecurity, and information governance law since 2009. She is a member of the DRI Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Committee, the DRI Center for Law & Public Policy Data Privacy & Security Working Group, and the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Sarah D. Wiese is an attorney focusing on privacy and cybersecurity matters.