As we have recently mentioned on our blog, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. And I’m sure we will post more to raise awareness of the risks you personally face, the risks to the institutions you do business with, and to the government itself.
Today, though, I want you to start to broaden your outlook on this issue. While you are getting acquainted with new threats like nation-state funded attacks, cyber-terrorism, and hactivism, I’d also ask you to look at some of the things our legislatures have been proposing in the name of cybersecurity. This includes early efforts to protect critical industry sectors our energy grid or banking systems against cyberattack, and requirements that we move beyond passwords when we access Web sites where we perform transactions or access personal data. As all these initiatives come with costs, none have universal support. But some cybersecurity proposals have generated more controversy than others, including: like the SOPA and PIPA bills that coddled the media industry by conflating digital piracy with cybersecurity and whose proposed remedies would have create a regime of censorship, or the federal development and control of a so-called “Internet Kill Switch“.
There will continue to be a lot going on here legislatively, and anything that changes the government’s role in the Internet will affect you as well. So let’s make also do our job as responsible, informed citizens. Let’s make October National Cybersecurity Policy Awareness Month. Let’s get educated, and involved.
