In the Wake of Cyber Damage: Significant Decisions in Cybersecurity 2013-2014

摘要

The coherence of the legal decisions reviewed in this survey stand in stark contrast to years of slow reaction to each bow wave of cyber damage to the nation's economy. As of March 2013, the nation still lacked an "integrated strategic approach," and as of April 2014, none has emerged. The adoption of digital technologies has come with what has proven to be a gross underestimation of the risk of cyberattacks, the undiminished vulnerability to such attacks, and the growing extent of damage they can inflict. The decisions we have discussed will not reverse those trends. Instead, they incrementally adjust who bears the burdens of the continued deferral of a coherent federal response to cyberattacks. They illustrate that liability from inattention appears to be an emerging risk and may become the impetus that enterprises need to justify investment in enhanced cybersecurity practices. And they should help reduce impediments the private sector must overcome as it jury-rigs responses to belated discoveries of successful attacks.