According to experts, Silicon Valley has dropped its guardian of cybersecurity

Silicon Valley is vigilant about the threat posed by hackers and state-sponsored snoops.

That was the consensus of a group of cybersecurity experts at a roundtable at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado on Tuesday.

"I think the people of the valley are naive in the face of the threat of a foreign nation-state," said Tim Junio, co-founder and CEO of Expanse, a San Francisco-based startup that helps customers to monitor and reduce their digital "attack surface". Investors include TPG Growth, Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, and Michael Dell. "It's incredibly rare – and late in the game – for companies to think that foreign players are going to recruit people to penetrate their networks."

The largest companies are acutely aware that foreign governments are seeking access to their networks by any means available, whether by hacking from outside or by installing a spy inside. But startups are far less likely to view themselves as potential targets for state-sponsored activities.

"I think in Silicon Valley, small businesses are not so aware of the threat of insider trading and foreign players such as China," said Michael Brown, former CEO. from Symantec, publisher of cyber security software. Defense Innovation Unit of the United States Department of Defense. "Should this be, he added, something that our government should protect?"

The relationship between Washington DC and Silicon Valley was debated this week after Thiel's inflammatory remarks in a speech on Sunday. Thiel, a member of Facebook's board of directors, blamed the Google Alphabet affiliate for having decided not to pursue a contract giving the Ministry of Defense access to its online advertising capabilities. ;artificial intelligence.

But Brown said the idea of ​​a gap between the valley and the federal government was exaggerated. His Department of Defense unit, he said, is receiving a lot of support from the technology community. "We see a lot of companies wanting to help," Brown said. "When we send a request, we usually get 30 to 40 incoming responses."

One way to combat the threat emanating from foreign governments and hackers is for companies to focus on promoting and implementing better cybernetic "hygiene" among their staff.

Dorian Daley, executive vice president and chief legal advisor to the Oracle technology giant, said the company had a senior security oversight committee that met quarterly to review security issues in detail. "We have what I call a" business colonoscopy, "said Daley. "People must be held responsible. They must be called on the carpet.

Vigilance from top to bottom is crucial, but it will not remove the threat, said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, who organized an IPO last month. According to Alperovitch, some foreign governments pose a permanent threat.

"Cybersecurity only knows four problems: China, Russia, North Korea and Iran," said Alperovitch, perhaps half-jokingly. "It's not just the pirates of the nation-state. A large number of criminals also operate in these countries. And if a network has a weak point, it will eventually find it.

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