By Tim Maurer
This article was originally published on the website of the German language newspaper Die Zeit on February 11, 2012, and can be accessed here.
Europe is focused on the protest against ACTA announced for February 11, particularly now that the German government has decided to withdraw its support. It is hard to imagine this would have happened without the furor over the SOPA and PIPA legislation in the US.
While Europe is focusing belatedly on the ACTA legislations, the next battle over the Internet is already building up in Washington. The US Congress is currently preparing the first major cyber-security legislation in a decade. The outcome will not only affect Americans, but Internet users in Germany, as well.
At first sight, the activity of Congress on this issue might seem surprising. The US is gearing up for a presidential election. Democrats and Republicans in Congress are fighting against each other hoping to win votes. President Obama, on the other hand, tries to emulate Truman passing the buck to Congress and hoping to emerge as the reelected lucky third. Most observers therefore do not expect much to happen on Capitol Hill this year on important issues such as the budget or immigration reform. However, cyber-security is the exception. Not only is it the exception but it also enjoys bipartisan support. Why is that?
Officials from the Department of Defense and the intelligence community keep emphasizing that the threats from cyberspace require more and urgent attention. As a result, Democrats and Republicans agree that something needs to be done about cyber-security. Their leaders in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and House Speaker John Boehner (R), are both supporting these efforts. The Congressional Research Service, the equivalent of the German Parliament’s Research Services, published a report in December 2011 highlighting that “There appears to be considerable support in principle for significant legislation to address most of those issues”. According to Paul Rosenzweig, professor at George Washington University, “cyber-security is likely to set a new world record for competing bills with bipartisan co-sponsors.”
The proposals have in common that they envision greater authority for DHS to increase the protection of critical infrastructure against a cyber-attack. Such a cyber-attack was the scenario for the 2011 simulation of a national disaster in Germany. They also discuss the delicate question if the military and intelligence agencies are to play a greater role in protecting against cyber threats.
National borders only play a limited role in cyberspace but there are good reasons for the division between civilian and military on the national and international level. With regard to the later, the recommendations of the task force call for the U.S. to lead international efforts regarding cyber-security. The Senate bill bars the President and the US government from shutting down the Internet.
Experts mostly agree that this would be hardly feasible technically, but the provision was not included in an earlier version of the bill. However, it shows that the state is being limited in how much control the state can exercise over the private sector that largely manages and owns the Internet infrastructure. How to interact with the latter is where the views of Democrats and Republicans diverge. The former prefer regulation, the former latter incentives to address this issue.
Even with Democrats and Republicans agreeing that they need to heed the calls from the Pentagon and the intelligence community, the outcome of their efforts is far from certain. There is another rift that sharply divides US politics particularly relating to the Internet: the rift between the East Coast vs. the West Coast. As Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig has pointed out, the former governs with aw, the latter with computer code.
The protest against SOPA and PIPA was only the most recent example of the differences between the libertarian Silicon Valley and government officials in Washington – an exception among government officials is Republican Representative and outspoken libertarian Ron Paul who famously spoke out in support of WikiLeaks.
SOPA and PIPA were economic bills focusing on protecting copyright. This was a tough sell when some citizens who think of themselves as the 99% and enjoy watching free movies online. It is therefore not surprising that the protest produced such a successful pushback changing lawmakers’ minds.
The next round – cyber-security –will be a much tougher fight for libertarians to win. This time the arguments in the discussion over the Internet are no longer economic ones but focus on national security. No matter how big the rift between the East and the West Coast, it is clear that their decisions over the future of the Internet will not only affect Americans but Internet users around the globe. SOPA and PIPA were not the end, they are just the beginning.
Tim Maurer is a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a non-resident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin.
This article was originally published on the website of the German language newspaper Die Zeit on February 11, 2012, and can be accessed here.
Europe is focused on the protest against ACTA announced for February 11, particularly now that the German government has decided to withdraw its support. It is hard to imagine this would have happened without the furor over the SOPA and PIPA legislation in the US.
While Europe is focusing belatedly on the ACTA legislations, the next battle over the Internet is already building up in Washington. The US Congress is currently preparing the first major cyber-security legislation in a decade. The outcome will not only affect Americans, but Internet users in Germany, as well.
At first sight, the activity of Congress on this issue might seem surprising. The US is gearing up for a presidential election. Democrats and Republicans in Congress are fighting against each other hoping to win votes. President Obama, on the other hand, tries to emulate Truman passing the buck to Congress and hoping to emerge as the reelected lucky third. Most observers therefore do not expect much to happen on Capitol Hill this year on important issues such as the budget or immigration reform. However, cyber-security is the exception. Not only is it the exception but it also enjoys bipartisan support. Why is that?
Officials from the Department of Defense and the intelligence community keep emphasizing that the threats from cyberspace require more and urgent attention. As a result, Democrats and Republicans agree that something needs to be done about cyber-security. Their leaders in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and House Speaker John Boehner (R), are both supporting these efforts. The Congressional Research Service, the equivalent of the German Parliament’s Research Services, published a report in December 2011 highlighting that “There appears to be considerable support in principle for significant legislation to address most of those issues”. According to Paul Rosenzweig, professor at George Washington University, “cyber-security is likely to set a new world record for competing bills with bipartisan co-sponsors.”
The proposals have in common that they envision greater authority for DHS to increase the protection of critical infrastructure against a cyber-attack. Such a cyber-attack was the scenario for the 2011 simulation of a national disaster in Germany. They also discuss the delicate question if the military and intelligence agencies are to play a greater role in protecting against cyber threats.
National borders only play a limited role in cyberspace but there are good reasons for the division between civilian and military on the national and international level. With regard to the later, the recommendations of the task force call for the U.S. to lead international efforts regarding cyber-security. The Senate bill bars the President and the US government from shutting down the Internet.
Experts mostly agree that this would be hardly feasible technically, but the provision was not included in an earlier version of the bill. However, it shows that the state is being limited in how much control the state can exercise over the private sector that largely manages and owns the Internet infrastructure. How to interact with the latter is where the views of Democrats and Republicans diverge. The former prefer regulation, the former latter incentives to address this issue.
Even with Democrats and Republicans agreeing that they need to heed the calls from the Pentagon and the intelligence community, the outcome of their efforts is far from certain. There is another rift that sharply divides US politics particularly relating to the Internet: the rift between the East Coast vs. the West Coast. As Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig has pointed out, the former governs with aw, the latter with computer code.
The protest against SOPA and PIPA was only the most recent example of the differences between the libertarian Silicon Valley and government officials in Washington – an exception among government officials is Republican Representative and outspoken libertarian Ron Paul who famously spoke out in support of WikiLeaks.
SOPA and PIPA were economic bills focusing on protecting copyright. This was a tough sell when some citizens who think of themselves as the 99% and enjoy watching free movies online. It is therefore not surprising that the protest produced such a successful pushback changing lawmakers’ minds.
The next round – cyber-security –will be a much tougher fight for libertarians to win. This time the arguments in the discussion over the Internet are no longer economic ones but focus on national security. No matter how big the rift between the East and the West Coast, it is clear that their decisions over the future of the Internet will not only affect Americans but Internet users around the globe. SOPA and PIPA were not the end, they are just the beginning.
Tim Maurer is a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a non-resident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin.