A new
article written by a fellow at Rice
Univ.’s Baker Institute for Public
Policy calls on the intelligence community to jointly create a policy on
cybersecurity and determine the degree to which the U.S. should protect intellectual
property and national infrastructure of other nations. The author also comments
on how aggressive the United
States should be in its proactive
cyber-spying activities.
“Treasure Trove or Trouble: Cyber-Enabled Intelligence and
International Politics” was authored by Chris Bronk, a fellow of
information technology policy at the Baker Institute and a former U.S. State
Department diplomat. The report was published in the American Intelligence Journal.
“America
wants a secure cyberspace, but its intelligence agencies have found enormous
utility in using their own computer hacking capabilities to collect
confidential information from foreign adversaries,” Bronk said. “This
raises the question of how the U.S.
government can push for global cybersecurity while at the same time using cyber
means to collect intelligence on potentially threatening regimes such as Iran.”
Bronk kick-starts the debate on how altruistic the United States can be on a secure
cyberspace when it may benefit enormously from the insecurity of others’
information networks.
U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman is again introducing a comprehensive
cybersecurity bill with the issue of protecting the vitally important digital
networks that make so much of the national infrastructure work.
“There remains an enormous vacuum in policy as to how America’s
intelligence agencies, many of whom are charged with roles is securing
cyberspace under the Lieberman bill, can continue to use clandestine cyber
means in collecting intelligence, or even engaging in covert action against
other countries and transnational groups,” Bronk said. “This is an
issue that needs consideration and input not just within Washington
political circles, but far beyond the Beltway, including firms in Silicon
Valley and other tech centers around the U.S.”
Bronk previously served as a career diplomat with the Department of State on
assignments both overseas and in Washington.
His last assignment was in the Office of eDiplomacy, the department’s internal
think tank on information technology, knowledge management, computer security
and interagency collaboration. He also has experience in political affairs,
counternarcotics, immigration and U.S.-Mexico border issues. Since arriving at
Rice, Bronk has studied a number of areas, including information security,
technology for immigration management, broadband policy, Web 2.0 governance and
the militarization of cyberspace. He teaches classes on the intersection of
computing and politics in Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering.
To read the full article, visit http://www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/ITP-pub-BronkTreasureTroveAIJ-022211.pdf.
