Why state-run cures against hackers may be worse than the disease
Strong surveillance laws and plans for government-run clouds could provide some protection for businesses, but not without a price paid in lack of privacy
Ensuring that the state is secure from cyber threats is increasingly becoming the priority of governments worldwide, sometimes clashing with concerns over privacy. There were four notable ways that states increased their presence in cyberspace in 2016, and this presence is forecast to become more prominent this year.
First, similar to what Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz said about war being “politics by other means”, states are increasingly using cyber capabilities as a way to extend their policies by other means.
The most prominent recent example of this is allegedly Russia, a nation accused by the United States of interfering with the US presidential elections.
The United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security charged that the Russians hacked into the computers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and then leaked the emails to WikiLeaks to discredit the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, whom they thought would be less favourable to Russian interests than now President-elect Donald Trump.
International cooperation needed to ensure cybersecurity
This episode provides an interesting twist to what is considered to be the critical information infrastructure (CII) in any given state.