Privacy and Security Why Isn't Cyberspace More Secure?

摘要

In cyberspace it's easy to get away with criminal fraud, easy to steal corporate intellectual property, and easy to penetrate governmental networks. Last spring the new Commander of USCYBERCOM, NSA's General Keith Alexander, acknowledged for the first time that even U.S. classified networks have been penetrated.2 Not only do we fail to catch most fraud artists, IP thieves, and cyber spies-we don't even know who most of them are. Yet every significant public and private activity-economic, social, governmental, military-depends on the security of electronic systems. Why has so little happened in 20 years to alter the fundamental vulnerability of these systems? If you're sure this insecurity is either (a) a hoax or (b) a highly desirable form of anarchy, you can skip the rest of this column.