Council on Foreign Relations: US must take lead on securing cyberspace

The United States must take a stronger international leadership role in securing cyberspace, including holding other countries accountable for their citizens' actions online, according to a new report from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Report author and CFR international affairs fellow Robert Knake argues the United States must push back against China, Russia and other countries that are seeking to establish tightly-controlled versions of the Internet in order to combat cybercrime, industrial espionage and cyber warfare. Knake argues the plethora of threats online makes state control of the Web seem increasingly attractive to Western nations, which is why the U.S. should champion openness, innovation and limited government intervention. "These attributes make the network flexible, so that new uses can be developed rapidly, and scalable, so that millions of new users and devices can be connected each year, expanding the free flow of ideas and the reach of international commerce," Knake writes. "Addressing problems of security in cyberspace at the expense of these attributes would not serve U.S. national interests."