"When We Wage Cyberwar, the Whole Web Suffers"

Op-Ed, Bloomberg

April 25, 2012

Author: Susan P. Crawford, Former Faculty Affiliate, Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy Project, January–December 2012

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Explorations in Cyber International Relations; The Cyber Project; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Responding to concerns voiced by privacy advocates, conservative groups and hundreds of thousands of Americans, the House Intelligence Committee has revised parts of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, also known as CISPA.

Those provisions would have allowed companies to disclose sensitive information to the government without being accountable to U.S. privacy laws. There will be more amendments offered when the bill reaches the House floor, probably Thursday or Friday.

But the real problem with CISPA and similar bills now pending in the Senate (one introduced by Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman gives broad spying powers to Homeland Security; one introduced by Arizona Republican John McCain gives broad spying powers to the Defense Department) is much deeper: This flurry of legislation signals that elements of our government want to wage unconstrained war on other nations in cyberspace, no matter what the consequences may be to humanity. The arms race being driven by this desire is threatening Internet freedom here and abroad....

Continue reading: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-25/when-we-wage-cyberwar-the-whole-web-suffers.html

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