Thoughts on the Commerce Department’s new cybersecurity paper



The Internet has brought considerable social and economic benefit to world, but today faces a broad range of security challenges. It’s important that governments and industry continue to work together to meet those challenges.

That’s why we’re encouraged by the paper released today by the Department of Commerce, “Cybersecurity, Innovation, and the Internet Economy.” The report emphasizes the need for a new designation for businesses that are important to our lives and the economy, yet fall outside the realm of critical infrastructure (for example, providers of online services and content, cloud computing firms, and social networks). It also challenges those businesses to come up with best practices for sharing information about online threats. These proposals could help improve the security of the Internet while preserving the rapid innovation that has characterized its growth and success.

We’ve long supported the Department of Commerce’s efforts in this space, including submitting comments to the notice of inquiry that led to the drafting of this paper, and we hope all stakeholders continue to participate in this process.