“Cybersecurity Dilemmas: Technology, Policy, and Incentives” by Raymond, and Beverly Sackler, contains detailed information about cybersecurity dilemma discussed during the U.S.-U.K. forum in 2015. It extensively discusses the cybersecurity dilemma in relation to technology, incentives and policy and recommends the way forward.
Experts have raised concerns over the approaches used to tame cybercrime. Rather than decreasing the threats, they tend to increase them (Andersen 359; Cavelty 703). The causes of the problem are multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. They go beyond the interaction between states to the individual citizens (Cavelty 703). Cybercrime dilemma results from three main factors: technology, incentives, and policy.
Technology is driven by consumers’ demand powerful and most modern features (Raymond and Sackler 6). The technology should offer convenience, anonymity in certain circumstances and security (Harrop, Wayne and Matteson 153). Providing all these comes at a cost. For instance, for the systems to be made more secure, they have to be simple.
Additionally, they can be protected by sanitizing and isolating all input (Raymond and Sackler 6). The system becomes less valuable and less useful when such methods are adopted. The conflicting desires between designers of the system and the users make it difficult to come up with realistic measures to stop cybercrime.
Cost-benefit analysis often leads to misalignment of incentives (Raymond and Sackler 8). For any system to become a target of attack, it must have something of value to the attacker. The value of the assets determines the amount of time and resources that can be invested to protect a particular system (Byres and Lowe 217).
For instance, exclusive secrets of the state are precious. As such, they require extremely high protection. On the other hand, information on blogs may not be as valuable. The ability to determine the benefit of what is being protected and the cost involved poses a dilemma when deciding whether or not to put up measures to ensure cyber security (Raymond and Sackler 8).
The policies to stop the attackers are not deterrent enough. Mostly, the software to assist in criminal activities can be bought from hacking specialists who are based in countries where laws to stop them are weak (Kelly and McKenzie 12). Additionally, creating new technologies only facilitates cybercrime although it also boosts the efforts of the law enforcement agents to solve crimes (Raymond and Sacker 10). The dilemma is whether it is appropriate to advance the technologies yet they increase cybercrime.
Works Cited
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Byres, Eric, and Justin Lowe.”The myths and facts behind cyber security risks for industrial control systems.”Proceedings of the VDE Congress 116.1 (2004): 213-218. Print.
Cavelty, Myriam Dunn. “Breaking the cyber-security dilemma: Aligning security needs and removing vulnerabilities.” Science and engineering ethics 20.3 (2014): 701-715. Print.
Harrop, Wayne, and Ashley Matteson. “Cyber Resilience: A Review of Critical National Infrastructure and Cyber-Security Protection Measures Applied in the UK and USA.” Current and Emerging Trends in Cyber Operations. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015. 149-166. Print.
Kelly, Grant, and Bruce McKenzie.”Security, privacy, and confidentiality issues on the Internet.”Journal of Medical Internet Research 4.2 (2002): 12. Print.
Raymond, Sackler, and Beverly Sackler. Cybersecurity Dilemmas: Technology, Policy, and Incentives. Washington: Washington, 2015. Print.