Thompson Files: Internet threats -- Part 1

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Digital networks are the nervous system of our modern technological civilization, essential to commerce and culture. The entire global economy, from banking to utilities to manufacturing to healthcare, relies on Internet-style communications. Even the U.S. military has reorganized for what it calls "network-centric warfare."

But the Internet empowers everybody, including criminals and foreign governments intent on weakening the United States of America. As digital networks have proliferated, so has malicious software designed to exploit the networks for destructive purposes. Internet predators are increasingly capable and sophisticated.

Cyber threats are now so common that they pose a real danger to U.S. national security. Networks must be secured against intrusion, otherwise the United States risks severe economic damage and potential defeat at the hands of other countries. But the anonymity of the Internet impedes efforts to deter and destroy threats.

The U.S. government has taken a number of steps aimed at combating threats to digital networks, including a Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative launched in 2008. However, the current federal framework for dealing with cyber threats is fragmented, and it cannot keep up with emerging dangers.

The new Obama administration will have to determine whether current cybersecurity efforts are sufficient or if additional resources are required. The Obama administration will also have to decide whether the current federal framework for addressing cyber threats can do the job, and if not how to tap more agile sources of expertise in the marketplace.

In the 20 years since the Cold War ended, the world has become connected in ways it never was before. A breakthrough called the Internet has integrated previously isolated networks into a single global web that anyone with a computer can enter. The technology that made this possible, called Internet Protocol communications, has torn down the barriers that once impeded interaction among diverse and scattered users.

As a result, the world has become a more open and productive place. People who once had little say in how their society operated have been empowered, and opportunities for enrichment of every kind have multiplied.

But the paradox of the Internet is that in delivering power to the edges, it has also delivered power to the fringes. Predators of every persuasion now have access and options they never would have enjoyed in the past.

Some are agents of foreign governments seeking to subvert democracy or steal its secrets. Others are criminals, cult members, transnational terrorists or nihilistic vandals. All have discovered that the Internet provides a potential pathway to their goals. And increasingly, it is information networks themselves -- the nervous system of our civilization -- that such actors seek to target.

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(Loren B. Thompson is chief executive officer of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank that supports democracy and the free market.)