Colossal
data breaches, persistent cyberattacks, and contentious legislation all
dominate the headlines except when an executive branch hopeful is
involved. To date, presidential debate
topics have included the economy, gun control, overzealous policing, and even
the regulation of fantasy sports, but not cybersecurity. This is ironic considering last week the
Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a carbon copy
of the same privacy destroying bill first defeated in 2012.
A
little background on CISA: “supporters say that it could prevent security
breaches in the future by encouraging private companies to voluntarily share
information on cyberattacks with the government. Opponents don't like the
potential for abuse, especially after the details of the National Security
Agency's surveillance program were made public” (Wagstaff, 2012). To date, the only major candidate with a
stance on CISA or national cybersecurity legislation has been Bernie
Sanders. Although Sanders supported the Cybersecurity
Act of 2012, like Paul Ryan he opposed CISA on privacy grounds. Hillary Clinton on the other hand hasn’t
taken a public stance on the legislation at all. Although the former Secretary of State has
campaigned on the importance of enhancing America’s cyberdefenses, her stance
on this subject is somewhat muddled by her use of an insecure personal email server.
On
the Republican side of this equation, none of the major candidates have issued
any definitive opinion on cybersecurity.
Jeb Bush comes the closest with his criticism of President Obama’s
handling of the OPM breach. The former
Florida governor has written at length on the issue of cybersecurity
on his website outlining his position on the topic. And unlike Carson or Paul, Bush supports
CISA, writing that the United States should “reduce legal and technical
barriers to cybersecurity information sharing between the federal government
and private sector” (Wagstaff, 2012).
Unlike many of the other topics
dominating the headlines, few experts see cybersecurity as a partisan
issue. There shouldn’t be a Democrat or
Republican position on this matter.
Although the president holds little budgetary power, the executive
office does nominate the heads of the Departments of Justice, Defense, and
Homeland Security; all influential positions when it comes to
cyber. Given the lack of appeal
this topic represents for most Americans, it isn’t unusual how little cyber is
talked about in the president cycle, it is however still somewhat
unsettling.
References
Wagstaff,
K. (2015). Why aren’t presidential candidates talking about cybersecurity? NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/why-arent-presidential-candidates-talking-about-cybersecurity-n451826
