From: Passcode
As soon as Congress realizes that good security and privacy practices are paramount to cultivating a thriving tech economy, it can begin working with Silicon Valley to forge a more prosperous digital future.
American secrets, whether they belong to citizens or the CIA, are under unprecedented digital assault. American firms want to do business on an Internet made safe for commerce. More than autocratic states like Russia or technophobic nations in Europe, the US has a stake in making sure that security, privacy, and personal freedom go hand-in-hand online. Rather than work so hard to beat the Valley, the Beltway should join it – and that starts with welcoming digital savvy, including use of encryption, in the halls of government. Because let’s be frank: On cybersecurity, Washington is a weak link.
Policymakers will struggle to be taken seriously in this space as long as their own defenses remain so dramatically bad. The breach of the Office of Personnel Management was more than just an epic counterintelligence failure; it casts a shadow over every conversation on public/private cooperation in cyberspace. Months later, we still get reports revealing the hack was worse than previously disclosed. Just a few weeks ago, OPM admitted that five times as many fingerprints were stolen as originally estimated. Who could have been surprised that when Facebook set up its ThreatExchange platform to swap information on cyber risks, government agencies were left off the invite list?
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