Do We Need Our Government To Determine How To Keep Us Safe On The Internet?

Internet, Hackers & the Government

Today we are more vulnerable than ever before on the internet. The internet, world-wide web, and email were introduced to the general public in the early to mid-1990’s. The 20th century marked the beginning of an era full of websites, images, instant information as well as instant communication. The emergence of the internet was like a Pandora’s box and the general public was amazed with this new technology. This was the beginning of the cyberworld, an ever increasing changing world of technology that has continued to evolve in a blink of an eye. In turn, this has led to an open source internet that has seen a growing problem of computer attacks (cyber attacks) against the government, corporations and individuals. In response to this growing problem private companies and the United States government have collaborated to introduce the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 is a good starting point to legislation that still needs to be amended. It is interesting that social media corporations like Google, Facebook and Sony to name a few were not a part of the creation of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. The absence of these internet giants might indicate that the bill presented into legislation is not going to succeed in combating cyber attacks.

What is the Cybersecurity Act of 2012?

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 is a 205 page bill that was completed with the collaboration of “leaders and senior members of the Senate Committees on Commerce, Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, and Intelligence to give the federal government and the private sector the tools necessary to protect our most critical infrastructure from growing cyber threats” (www.hsgac.senate.gov, 2012). Furthermore, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 is legislation presented on February 14, 2012, leading to speculations indicating that the bill was intentionally written in ambiguous and confusing language that could hypothetically lead to many American firms falling under its mandate.

Who Does it Impact?

Many critics opine that this bill is giving the government full access into the private sector and that these corporations may be more vulnerable. Westby, J. (www.forbes.com, 2012) further states that, “the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 actually would put a federal agent inside most of these businesses’ data centers and require assessments and reporting that could make Sarbanes-Oxley seem inexpensive.” Furthermore, critics argue that the Cybersecurity Act is wasteful and threatens privacy. Owners and operators will be required, at their own expense, to alter their Internet security choices in accordance with government requirements. This will be an extremely pricy proposition for hardware providers, Internet infrastructure providers, and web giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon

Do We Need Our Government To Determine How To Keep Us Safe On The Internet?

Today more than ever before, it is easy to become a cybercriminal. It requires few computer skills, and openly available online are more and more hacking tools, spy-ware, and other forms of malware to assist the most novice criminal. Currently, the law and guidelines of the internet are vague and seem to be getting vaguer as more and more people join the internet community. Hacking is a huge problem that has spread like a cancer and it doesn’t discriminate against social status, age, gender and race. The world, unbeknown to us, had suddenly become flat. Borders are no longer an obstacle and you can communicate with others with just having an internet connection. Does this mean that our government has the solution to resolve these issues with the simple introduction of new legislation? Will the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 suffice to combat cyber attacks? Finally, it is my opinion that key social media corporations have the opportunity to collaborate in some way and provide their insights into a problem that affects them in a substantial way.