This is a paper by a very good friend and a wonderful colleague of mine – Jody Westby. She’s one of the best experts in cybersecurity and the problems developing countries face combating cyber crime. She is chair of the American Bar Association’s Privacy and Computer Crime Committee and was chair, co-author and editor of its International Guide to Combating Cybercrime, International Guide to Cyber Security, International Guide to Privacy.
Here’s a short summary of the paper, and you can download it at the end – in two different formats:
Since the formation of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection in 1996, significant work has been undertaken by U.S. agencies and departments and state and local governments with respect to the protection of critical infrastructure (CI) and public-private sector coordination in the event of a cyber attack. The associated legal and policy issues have also been reviewed and actions have been taken to ensure an appropriate legal framework is in place to support Homeland Security response measures. Little has been done, however, with respect to (a) public-private sector response coordination in a cyber warfare context, and (b) the development of domestic and international legal and policy frameworks to support such responses. Thus, there are significant preparedness gaps between the Homeland Security capabilities exercised by infrastructure owners and local, state, and federal responders and the Homeland Defense capabilities required from the U.S. military and other nation states. It is precisely these Homeland Defense gaps that leave America most vulnerable. In the post-9/11 world, responses to major cyber attacks will require (a) enormous interaction and cooperation between the public and private sectors, (b) clear legal authority for actions taken by the U.S. military and any collective assistance from other nation states, and (c) authorization from private sector boards of directors and senior management regarding the use of private sector networks in offensive and defensive actions.
You can download the whole paper here (OpenOffice document, 36 Kb) or here (213 Kb – MS Word Doc format).