Issue 340 Protecting the Net (whose job is it?) May 21, 2014

So whose job is it to protect the internet?  Truth is, the people of the United States are still discussing the issue. So let’s go over go over advantages to both public and private defending the internet that we have all come to rely on.

Government:  The main advantage to the government is that it has an unlimited budget to develop the systems needed to protect the net.  Groups in the defense industry like the National Security Agency (NSA) already serve to aid in protecting the net via various firewall and software programs.  In fact it was one of their primary jobs until Congress allowed for private companies to develop their own and sell their own anti-virus and protective software.  Now the NSA mainly serves as a spy agency to collect data via electronic means with the Air-force taking control of the defense of the net, but primarily does so for the military.  With the governments vast resources they can fund any program and institution to develop any program they need for the past, present and future threats the internet may face.

Private:  Private companies have a major advantage over the government.  For one they are on a budget.  Thus, despite their limited resources they can get an equivalent program to defend the internet much cheaper than in most cases than what the government will put forth (as corruption is sure to occur at the governmental level).  Also, while the government may rely on a single program, the private sector may develop multiple types of systems for their own protection which will frustrate hackers and foreign governments. Basically variety and cost saving are typically the main advantages here.

Conclusion:  In my opinion, both government and private companies have a role to play.  But both lack attack components (though the private sector is changing that somewhat).  So it really remains to be seen if either will have a settled role in the defense of the internet.  However, it is my opinion that the private sector provides so much more in advantages including variety, and flexibility of defensive abilities and development, that they will take the prominent role in the defense of the internet (including themselves).  For the government, they will revert here to a source of information sharing for any potential threats (though the private sector will have an overlapping role in this) and act as a funding body for the private sector for any new emerging threats that the private sector has yet to have a counter for (of course that is if the private sector has not already taken steps to counter the threat).  Overall the internet is a valuable resource for all commerce and its collapse will result in market crashes and the loss of all defensive abilities that countries like the United States has.  So we can only hope government allows the private sector with its superior advantages to take the lead, less the government is more concerned about their ego than the defense of the nation itself.