Security, Privacy, and the Role of Law

US President Barack Obama promised a "new comprehensive approach" to cybersecurity and guaranteed to preserve "personal privacy and civil liberties," but the administration has stopped short of committing to the legal changes necessary to protect either information infrastructure or privacy. This tendency to undervalue law as a tool for enhancing both security and individual privacy is shared with other governments. Sound cybersecurity policy requires better incentives to secure data and systems, and those incentives will emerge, at least in part, from legal requirements. Similarly, serious efforts to protect against cyberthreats will compromise privacy and other civil rights unless those rights are protected by law.