February 21, 2022
The Cyber Social Contract
In the spring of 2021, a Russia-based cybercrime group launched a ransomware attack against the largest fuel pipeline in the United States. According to the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, the subsequent shutdown and gas shortage across the East Coast likely originated from a single compromised password. That an individual misstep might disrupt critical services for millions illustrates just how vulnerable the United States’ digital ecosystem is in the twenty-first century.
Although most participants in the cyber-ecosystem are aware of these growing risks, the responsibility for mitigating systemic hazards is poorly distributed. Cyber-professionals and policymakers are too often motivated more by a fear of risk than by an aspiration to realize cyberspace’s full potential. Exacerbating this dynamic is a decades-old tendency among the large and sophisticated actors who design, construct, and operate digital systems to devolve the cost and difficulty of risk mitigation onto users who often lack the resources and expertise to address them.
Cyberthreats represent a betrayal of what advocates promised at the dawn of the digital revolution.
Too often, this state of affairs produces digital ecosystems where private information is easily accessible, predatory technology is inexpensive, and momentary lapses in vigilance can snowball into a continent-wide catastrophe. Although individually oriented tools like multifactor authentication and password managers are critical to solving elements of this problem, they are inadequate on their own. A durable solution must involve moving away from the tendency to charge isolated individuals, small businesses, and local governments with shouldering absurd levels of risk. Those more capable of carrying the load—such as governments and large firms—must take on some of the burden, and collective, collaborative defense needs to replace atomized and divided efforts. Until then, the problem will always look like someone else’s to solve.
Read the full article from Foreign Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
Accelerate America’s Quantum Technology Leadership
Commentary
As the U.S.-China competition for quantum technology leadership continues to intensify, the Trump administration should prioritize both advancing and protecting the country’s ...
By Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante
-
Secure America’s Tech Competitiveness
Commentary
The Trump administration must bolster America’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce and broader technological competitiveness—documented shortag...
By Sam Howell
-
Make America the Biopower
Commentary
No country has a better biotechnology hand than America. The administration has a historic opportunity to play it wisely and secure the United States’ position as the 21st cen...
By Vivek Chilukuri
-
Promote and Protect America’s AI Advantage
Commentary
The Trump administration should ensure that breakthrough capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) are developed in the United States and keep China from fully narrowing th...
By Janet Egan, Paul Scharre & Vivek Chilukuri
