Everyone Should Pay for Cyber Defense
[Commentary] The United States is vulnerable to cyberattacks by unfriendly nations and nonstate actors. Attacks through the Internet are now stealing billions of dollars of intellectual property from American businesses. Internet attacks can also bring down such critical infrastructure as the electricity supply, the air-traffic system and the stock market. Congress can and should act to protect us from this widespread and increasing danger.
While ordinary manufacturing and service companies that are not part of the critical infrastructure should decide for themselves how much they want to spend to protect their computer systems, we all have a stake in protecting the critical infrastructure. A failure of the electric grid or the stock market computers or the railroads would hurt us all. The infrastructure companies should be required to meet a high standard of protection and to cooperate with government agencies in preventing incoming malware. But the cost of doing that should be born by the country as a whole, just as we pay for the military or other public goods like the weather service. If necessary, funds should be diverted to cyberdefense from other areas of the military budget. Protecting the nation from cyberattacks that steal technology and that can disrupt our daily lives should be at the top of the government's agenda.
Everyone Should Pay for Cyber Defense