[governance] Joseph Nye on Cybersecurity (against an open Internet)

[Karl Auerbach]

>> CAMBRIDGE – Until recently, cyber security has primarily interested
>> computer geeks and cloak-and-dagger types. The Internet’s creators,
>> part of a small, enclosed community, were very comfortable with an
>> open system in which security was not a primary concern.

That's not strictly accurate.  As early as 1972 I was working on issues
of network (ARPAnet and similar nets) and operating security at System
Development Corporation (SDC).

However, much of our work was done for the United States "Department of
Defense" - one can insert one's own notions of what that phrase might
encompass - and was done under the cover of the typical protections that
apply to such work; one would have to dig very deeply into paper
archives, some of which may still be restricted, to find our work.

But my point here is not historical, rather it is that it is most of our
interest to keep the net running.

And to that end we need to have means for repair people to diagnose and
fix the net.  These people need to be able to do things without being
accused of being crackers or terrorists.  These people are the network
equivalent of surgeons - with very sharp and very scary tools - that
could do bad things but who don't (usually).

So before we lock down everything and accuse any and all who do anything
odd, we need to distinguish between those who are keeping the net
running and those who are attacking things.

(There is a middle ground, much larger than people think, of those who
are innocently doing bad things - often because of badly implemented
software [of which there is a huge amount on the net] or lack of knowledge.)

	--karl--


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