In Silicon Valley startup tradition, “cookie licking” is a derogatory phrase. A cookie licker stakes a declare to a undertaking in a method that forestalls anybody else from having it, regardless of not being able to instantly execute on the undertaking. The licker needs to save lots of the scrumptious alternative regardless of being too full to eat it instantly.
Sadly, cookie licking additionally involves thoughts once we see the regulatory sharks circling in rising tech areas akin to cryptocurrency, synthetic intelligence, or cybersecurity. As a former federal cybercrime prosecutor, appointed Obama administration cyber commissioner, and company data safety govt lately convicted of cyber-related crimes, I’ve seen this up shut greater than anybody.
Twenty-five years in the past, after I was tasked with bringing federal enforcement actions to guard individuals on the web, my friends and I found out one factor actually shortly: The web is totally different from another place the place regulation enforcement is anticipated to guard individuals as a result of a lot of the web is operated and managed by the non-public sector. Maintaining individuals protected on the web requires the federal government to put money into public-private partnerships and set clear expectations for these non-public sector entities. Again then, we additionally needed to depend on authorized codes crafted by Congress lengthy earlier than the web was a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye. The regulation was not adequate then, and it is not now.
Regulation by enforcement not the reply
Certainly, many years later, Congress has executed little to ascertain guidelines of the cyber street and even articulate which authorities needs to be our cyber cops. The manager department could have little selection however to do what it’s doing now: Set up expectations for the non-public sector via regulation by enforcement. This isn’t supreme for anybody as a result of regulation by enforcement does not give company actors readability on the principles of the street and empowers regulators to leap into any space that appears attractive with out the requisite foundations of experience, assets, and expectations. It’s notably harmful when it leads the non-public sector to change into afraid to work intently with the federal government to maintain individuals protected.
The rising adversarial relationship is fueled by one other unlucky actuality: Many of the malicious criminals who damage People over the web achieve this from exterior the US, the place too usually our regulation enforcement authorities are incapable of bringing justice to bear towards these intent on harming others. Usually impotent towards these exterior actors, to many individuals within the trade evidently enforcement authorities have shifted their gaze to the non-public sector as the best approach to display to the general public that they care.