Editor’s Note: The following article demonstrates that the FTC is staffed by one or more policy entrepreneurs.
From: The New Republic
One of the most hotly contested questions in the cyber domain (at least domestically) is whether or not the federal government should have a role in setting universal cybersecurity standards for critical American infrastructure. That was the ground for debate much of 2011 and 2012 in Congress.
The debate gave rise to a subsidiary question: If the federal government is going to set standards, which part of the government should be responsible? Some (the “hawks”) favored the National Security Agency. (This was before Edward Snowden became a household name.) Others (the “doves”) thought that civilian control through the Department of Homeland Security was the better course of conduct. But everyone seemed to agree that one of the federal government security agencies should be in charge of setting cybersecurity standards.
In our current system of government, though, things that make sense seldom become reality. It now seems that our cybersecurity standards are going to be set by a consumer protection organization—the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The case that made this clear is Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, a civil suit brought in the District of New Jersey by the FTC relating to a cybersecurity breach at Wyndham Hotels.
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