From: Indian Strategic Studies
Dan Geer
Good morning and thank you for the invitation to speak with you today. The plaintext of this talk has been made available to the organizers. While I will not be taking questions today, you are welcome to contact me later and I will do what I can to reply. For simple clarity, let me repeat the abstract for this talk: Power exists to be used. Some wish for cyber safety, which they will not get. Others wish for cyber order, which they will not get.
Some have the eye to discern cyber policies that are “the least worst thing;” may they fill the vacuum of wishful thinking. There are three professions that beat their practitioners into a state of humility: farming, weather forecasting, and cyber security. I practice two of those, and, as such, let me assure you that the recommendations which follow are presented in all humility.
Humility does not mean timidity. Rather, it means that when a strongly held belief is proven wrong, that the humble person changes their mind. I expect that my proposals will result in considerable push-back, and changing my mind may well follow. Though I will say it again later, this speech is me talking for myself. As if it needed saying, cyber security is now a riveting concern, a top issue in many venues more important than this one. This is not to insult Black Hat; rather it is to note that every speaker, every writer, every practitioner in the field of cyber security who has wished that its topic, and us with it, were taken seriously has gotten their wish.
Cyber security *is* being taken seriously, which, as you well know is not the same as being taken usefully, coherently, or lastingly. Whether we are talking about laws like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or the non-lawmaking but perhaps even more significant actions that the Executive agencies are undertaking, “we” and the cyber security issue have never been more at the forefront of policy. And you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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