Ben Franklin would say our online liberty is the same as liberty itself
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government...y-itself/11253
Our congressional leaders are aware of this threat.
They’re mostly politicians and attorneys, so their awareness often lacks some degree of technical have-a-clue, but they do get the basic concept that there are bad guys out there.
Unfortunately, our congressional leaders tend not to turn to our technical leaders. Instead, they spend a lot of time with lobbyists and former congressional leaders, who now work for special interests. These special interests and lobbies are also very well aware of the threat, but they have their own, often incredibly selfish take on how the threat should be dealt with.
This is how we get laws and bills like DMCA, SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and the like. Lobbyists conflate the risk of attack and theft from truly worrisome bad guys with their special interests and the result is often worse than no legislation at all.
Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin once said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
The problem is that Congress doesn’t value (or, perhaps, doesn’t even understand) that our online liberty is the same as our offline liberty. Congress is often willing to propose bills that give up our essential digital liberty for some misguided temporary safety — especially when it comes to protecting music labels and big video producers.
Make no mistake. We need comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, best practices, and instruction all the way from the residence of the White House down to our neighbors, the residents of that white house next door.
We must educate our leaders that, as Ben also said, “Distrust and caution are the parents of security.” We must secure our nation from the billions of people out there who may choose to attack or steal from us. But we must not, ever,give up our fundamental freedoms, our fundamental privacy, in the pursuit of that security.
They’re mostly politicians and attorneys, so their awareness often lacks some degree of technical have-a-clue, but they do get the basic concept that there are bad guys out there.
Unfortunately, our congressional leaders tend not to turn to our technical leaders. Instead, they spend a lot of time with lobbyists and former congressional leaders, who now work for special interests. These special interests and lobbies are also very well aware of the threat, but they have their own, often incredibly selfish take on how the threat should be dealt with.
This is how we get laws and bills like DMCA, SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and the like. Lobbyists conflate the risk of attack and theft from truly worrisome bad guys with their special interests and the result is often worse than no legislation at all.
Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin once said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
The problem is that Congress doesn’t value (or, perhaps, doesn’t even understand) that our online liberty is the same as our offline liberty. Congress is often willing to propose bills that give up our essential digital liberty for some misguided temporary safety — especially when it comes to protecting music labels and big video producers.
Make no mistake. We need comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, best practices, and instruction all the way from the residence of the White House down to our neighbors, the residents of that white house next door.
We must educate our leaders that, as Ben also said, “Distrust and caution are the parents of security.” We must secure our nation from the billions of people out there who may choose to attack or steal from us. But we must not, ever,give up our fundamental freedoms, our fundamental privacy, in the pursuit of that security.
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