Foreign Policy Blogs

No, we're not all going to die. Also, cyber regulation good.

For the love of the FSM this kind of language annoys me.

Rockefeller pledges to work with tech leaders to avert “cyber 9/11, cyber Katrina”

Can we be realistic about the very serious threats that the Internet poses without going off into hysterical language? Yes, I’m looking at you, Ms. Bachmann.

After I stopped choking my CyberIntern in frustration, I went back and read the rest of the article. It’s actually spot on.

During a speech Thursday at the Business Software Alliance’s 2010 Cybersecurity Forum, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee predicted anything less that full cooperation would threaten national security and increase the likelihood that an attack would trigger a public response in support of “tough, unbending solutions” that do not favor private industry.

We Americans don’t really do well at solving problems in advance. This is particularly true as well-funded lobbies are able to head off common-sense regulation of new or changing industries fairly easily; as should be abundantly clear, Congress ain’t exactly swift.

Then disaster strikes, and the fat cats get far more regulation than they would have if they’d compromised at the beginning.