How To Prevent The Internet From Failing

The Internet we have today was never built for the security threats that we now face - spam, phishing, hacking and even the prospect of cyber war. As agencies are encouraged to leverage technology to become more productive and cost-efficient, how can these reforms happen while maintaining security and reliability?

Jeffrey Hunker, who served on the Clinton administration's national security council leading cybersecurity efforts, says U.S. policy has failed so far in addressing the growing security risks online. Hunker is the author of Creeping Failure: How We Broke the Internet and What We Can Do To Fix It.

 

Hunker said the United States is very good at handling crises. However, the nation has not faced an Internet crisis yet.
 
"We haven't had the cyber Pearl Harbor. We haven't had the complete network breakdown," Hunker said in an interview with the DorobekINSIDER. "What instead has happened year after year, we have an ever increasing and ever more sophisticated cyber underworld."
 
Hunker compares today's Internet to Charles Dickens' London of the 1840s - The city then was vast, driven by new technologies and rich with commercial and social opportunities, he said. At the same time, London was filled with crime and had no effective law enforcement or government.
 
"That's all what today's Internet is like," Hunker said.
 
What happened in London in the mid-19th century - and what must happen now with the "cyber city" of the Internet - is to create the physical, technological and institutional changes to meet modern challenges, Hunker argues.
 
"How long are we going to continue with trying to patch more vulnerabilities built on top of a network that was never designed in the first place to be secure?" Hunker asked. "If there's ever a recipe for for ultimate frustration and eventual failure, I can't think of a better description."

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