Game Loop
Brianna Wu takes a stand on US technology policy.
There’s not a polite way to say it, but American technology policy is absolutely terrible. In fact, the word “inept” is probably fair. I can’t sit by any longer, and I’m running for the US Congress in Massachusetts for 2018. Chances are, because you read Mac|Life, you should consider running too. We desperately need technology experts serving across our government.
A major factor in deciding to run was the FBIs attempt to force Apple to develop an iPhone backdoor for law enforcement. After a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, the FBI wanted to open the terrorist’s phone to try to gather intelligence. The problem was, agents had not followed procedure, and entered an incorrect password until the iPhone permanently locked. To correct their mistake, the FBI tried to pressure Apple in court to write a custom version of iOS to access this phone.
Though some members of the public are always eager to trade civil rights when the word terrorist is used, technologists saw the extreme danger. Not only could the American government use the program to spy on anyone’s phone with this iOS version, it could be used by foreign governments and hackers to compromise everyone. Fortunately for the public, Apple stood firm - but even former President Obama wanted Apple to comply. We desperately need technologists serving that will protect our civil rights. Because, the truth is, congress is comprised of 42% lawyers and they don’t understand these issues. them under the control of hackers. All across America, people unknowingly have devices in their homes that were used to attack our infrastructure.
YOU WOULD think the technological equivalent of a terrorist sleeper cell would have congress working late into the night. It did not. Congresswoman Martha Blackburn, who serves on the same House technology subcommittee I hope to serve on, had the temerity to go on CNN and blame the attack on software piracy. Gizmodo very fairly ran the headline, “This is the kind of idiot that Congress puts in charge of technology.”
But our problems go beyond the Mirai Botnet. Because our consumer protection laws are bought and paid for by large corporations, there’s no real consequence if a company is reckless in securing your data and ends up hacked. They simply send out a warning email to you, and then it’s back to business as usual.
We desperately need technologists serving in government to protect our civil rights
Another major reason I’m running was last year’s Mirai Botnet attack, which congress largely shrugged at. The Mirai attack used so-called “Internet of Things” devices to shut down large portions of the internet in late 2016. Popular low-cost webcams and video recorders shipped with the same default password. The Mirai botnet locates those devices and rewrites the firmware leaving
Data breaches usually happen because a database has not been properly secured. Recently, one security researcher threw an insecure database online and it didn’t even last 24 hours. Hiring security experts to do it correctly is expensive, so companies often cheap out, and consumers pay the price.
ECONOMISTS HAVE a term: “externality.” If I run an oil drill, and don’t spend the money to keep the environment clean around it, there is an external cost. Nearby water will be polluted, and local municipalities will have to spend a fortune to clean it up. That cost is an externality to my oil drill business. Similarly, when companies don’t keep their databases secure, the rest of us pay a steep price with identity theft, hacking, and financial fraud.
We have to make it more expensive to do the wrong thing than the right thing. That’s why congress needs to open up large companies to civil liability if they show extreme negligence in protecting user data. That would have three immediate benefits for the tech industry. First, it would be a huge boon to open source. Having your code reviewed would mitigate liability and would incentivize corporations to invest in open source development. Secondly, it would create a huge market for cybersecurity experts. Thirdly, it would vastly improve our national security - hardening us against attacks on our infrastructure.
Here in the United States, we spend 54% of our discretionary spending on the military. Yet, we are completely unprepared for the wars of the future - which will be fought less often with tanks and submarines, and more often by hacking our infrastructure. The corporations that lobby our politicians are quite happy to keep it this way. Vulnerable infrastructure is great for their business.
The free market cannot solve these issues, because the consumer doesn’t care and the producer has no incentive to spend the money. Beyond that, our current president is poised to eliminate net neutrality, which would be a huge blow to free information. The stakes are too high for inaction. It’s time for those of us that understand tech to step up and serve in government.
We have to make it more expensive for companies to do the wrong thing