In Silicon Valley startup tradition, “cookie licking” is a derogatory phrase. A cookie licker stakes a declare to a mission in a means that forestalls anybody else from having it, regardless of not being able to right away execute on the mission. The licker needs to save lots of the scrumptious alternative regardless of being too full to eat it instantly.
Sadly, cookie licking additionally involves thoughts once we see the regulatory sharks circling in rising tech areas equivalent to cryptocurrency, synthetic intelligence, or cybersecurity. As a former federal cybercrime prosecutor, appointed Obama administration cyber commissioner, and company info security govt lately convicted of cyber-related crimes, I’ve seen this up shut greater than anybody.
Twenty-five years in the past, after I was tasked with bringing federal enforcement actions to guard folks on the web, my friends and I found out one factor actually rapidly: The web is totally different from every other place the place legislation enforcement is predicted to guard folks as a result of a lot of the web is operated and managed by the personal sector. Conserving folks secure on the web requires the federal government to spend money on public-private partnerships and set clear expectations for these personal sector entities. Again then, we additionally needed to depend on authorized codes crafted by Congress lengthy earlier than the web was a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye. The legislation was not enough then, and it is not now.
Regulation by enforcement not the reply
Certainly, many years later, Congress has carried out little to determine guidelines of the cyber street and even articulate which authorities ought to be our cyber cops. The manager department could have little alternative however to do what it’s doing now: Set up expectations for the personal sector by way of regulation by enforcement. This isn’t ideally suited for anybody as a result of regulation by enforcement would not give company actors readability on the principles of the street and empowers regulators to leap into any space that appears attractive with out the requisite foundations of experience, sources, and expectations. It’s significantly harmful when it leads the personal sector to turn out to be afraid to work intently with the federal government to maintain folks secure.
The rising adversarial relationship is fueled by one other unlucky actuality: Many of the malicious criminals who damage Individuals over the web achieve this from exterior the USA, the place too usually our legislation enforcement authorities are incapable of bringing justice to bear in opposition to these intent on harming others. Usually impotent in opposition to these exterior actors, to many individuals within the trade evidently enforcement authorities have shifted their gaze to the personal sector as the best option to display to the general public that they care.
