Security Products

All technologies that involve security are inherently “dual use” technologies: They can be used by the good people to provide security and protect from attacks, but they can also be used by the bad people to protect themselves from law enforcement.

Governments in general, and the U.S. Government in particular, has been struggling to figure out how to regular technology security. Too much regulation, and companies don’t innovate. The US economy is heavily dependent on technological innovation, so restricting innovation will have a negative effect on the economy. On the other hand, security attacks are a real problem with very real consequences, and not regulating security means that the same attacks will continue to work over and over again.

Right now, the US Gov’t is taking a very precisely targetted approach: rather than regulating security in general or technology in general, it is making individual decisions about individual pieces of technology. Case in point: Just before spring break, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned all foreign-produced routers.

News articles:

Please read that document announcing the ban from the FCC, and the two news articles (which are very short). Then, let’s read some policy analysis about this ban written by Milton Mueller . He obviously has a strong opinion on the ban, but this is a good example of what a policy analysis looks like.

You can also visit this link (just the section on “National Security Case”) to see a one-paragraph description of the attacks that are the justification for the ban.

As you read these, you probably have opinions about this ban – opinions that are informed both by your knowledge of cybersecurity and by your political views. That’s OK; but what we want to do is find ways to think clearly about policy decisions like this, and find ways to provide arguments and evidence that might be convincing and useful to policy discussions. Read these articles and think: what arguments do you find the MOST convincing when thinking about this ban – either for or against the ban. Summarize what you think are the strongest arguments for the ban and against the ban in your summary+question for this week.

Optional Reading: