Ep. 17 — The Global Race to Secure 5G Networks Against Cyber Threats from China and other Geopolitical Adversaries / Rob Strayer, EVP, Information Technology Industry Council & Former Ambassador for Cyber Policy at U.S. State Department.
Aug 12, 2021•37 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
The world’s wireless systems are going through a major technology transformation through fifth-generation cellular networks — known as 5G for short. In addition to lightning-speed downloads for your smartphones, and faster speeds for your favorite streaming videos, 5G is expected to help the growth and adoption of other cutting-edge technologies such as connected cars, drones, industrial robots, AR/VR, medicine, and next-gen supply chains.
Indeed, the power and potential of 5G and its role in giving the United States a competitive edge is such that it is a national security asset… one that the U.S. government is aggressively moving to protect from security vulnerabilities and cyber attacks especially from 5G rival and geopolitical nemesis, China — while pushing our allies to do the same.
I have a wonderful guest here today to talk about what the U.S. government is doing to protect global 5G technology. Rob Strayer is former Ambassador for cyber policy at the U.S. State Department and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
Strayer is now a technology executive at the Information Technology Industry Council, representing 80 of the most innovative tech companies in markets around the globe.
While at the State Department, he led the development of U.S. foreign policy on a wide range of technology policy issues, including privacy, data protection, artificial intelligence, technical standards, cybersecurity, and 5G supply chain security. He also led the negotiations with foreign governments on these pressing issues and had a birds eye view of how U.S. and its allies are on a race to protect global 5G infrastructure from cyber attacks from China and other potential bad actors.
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Chitra Ragavan:
The world's wireless systems are going through a major technology transformation through 5th-generation cellular networks, known as 5G for short. In addition to lightening-speed downloads for your smartphones and faster speeds for your favorite streaming videos, 5G is expected to help the growth and adoption of other cutting-edge technologies like connected cars, drones, industrial robots, AR, VR, medicine, and next-gen supply chains. Indeed, the power and potential of 5G and its role in giving the United States a competitive edge is such that it is a national security asset, one that the US government is aggressively moving to protect from security vulnerabilities and cyber attacks, especially from 5G rival and geopolitical nemesis, China, while pushing our allies to do the same.
Chitra Ragavan:
Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is Techtopia. Here to talk about what the US government is doing to protect global 5G technology is Rob Strayer. He's a former US State Department Ambassador and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. Strayer is now a technology executive at the Information Technology Industry Council representing 80 of the most innovative tech companies and markets around the globe. While at the State Department, he led the development of US foreign policy on a wide range of technology policy issues, including privacy, data protection, artificial intelligence, technical standards, cybersecurity, and 5G supply chain security. He also led the negotiations with foreign governments about these issues. Rob, welcome to Techtopia.
Rob Strayer:
Pleasure to be with you.
Chitra Ragavan:
For those of us who are not entirely familiar with the power and potential of 5G, what are these 5G networks and why are they so transformative?
Rob Strayer:
5G is the natural evolution from what had been earlier generations of 2G, 3G, and 4G, each of which had expanded capabilities for wireless telecommunications. With 5G, we're seeing, as you said in the opening, increased amount of throughput of data in the network but also something called ultra liability and low latency, that is, the time it takes for a device to connect to the network and then receive inform...
