Some policy thoughts on corporate "revenge hacking"
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Michael Riley and Jordan Robertson, reporting a fascinating story at Bloomberg:
In the U.S., companies are prohibited by the 30-year-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act from gaining unauthorized access to computers or overloading them with digital demands, even to stop an ongoing attack.The act exempts intelligence and law-enforcement activities, allowing the government to respond more aggressively than private-sector firms. There’s little indication, though, that military and intelligence agencies have used their most powerful tools to shut down attacks on businesses, as the U.S. has attempted to address foreign-based hacking through diplomacy and the courts.
Diplomacy and the courts are clearly inadequate channels for preventing, halting or discouraging foreign-based hacking.
The question, then, is whether the U.S. government will use its broader “revenge” authority under the CFA to defend not only itself but private U.S. companies. This method would be problematic from a funding perspective, and may cause diplomatic friction.
Alternatively, the CFA could be amended to allow “proportional responses” by private U.S. companies to foreign-based hacking. This method would be problematic from oversight and transparency perspectives, subjecting revenge hacking to market dynamics and the “black box” in which companies conduct so much of their business (especially when they’re privately held).
Yes, companies often have to deal with reporting requirements in the aftermath of a major data breach, but they don’t have to disclose any countermeasures under any current state or federal notification regime I can find.
Perhaps the best solution would involve some hybrid of these. For example, a department of government investigators and hackers could be assigned in small groups to companies facing imminent or ongoing foreign-based hacking.
They could embed into the companies like journalists sometimes embed into military units, assisting the company in its response and pulling the trigger on revenge hacks, insulating the company from CFA immunity.
The hybrid method minimizes government expense, maximizes company involvement and allows for the use of transparency laws such as the Freedom of Information Act by journalists and policy analysts to peek inside the black box.
I’m obviously not going to come up with a perfect solution in a short blog post, but it’s worth thinking about.
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