::: nBlog :::
I’m continuing a bit about national security, and what it means today – as for a couple of months we’ve been in a dialogue with some of the national authorities responsible for critical functions of the society.
Say I’m running a paper factory and it comes under physical attack by a foreign government or a comparable entity. It is quite clear that the local nation has the (military/police) responsibility to maintain the physical integrity of the property, airspace and coastline at the installation. It conveniently falls under the flag of protecting the territorial sovereignty, a common core task of any military.
However, if the attack is as well funded and planned, but orchestrated using digital assets (spyware, viruses, hacking a la Stuxnet) then the answer is much more complicated.
The official answer is that the government offers advice and assistance, but the responsibility remains at the company. Simply put, the current laws do not stipulate a role for the military, no matter how devastating the attack is.
This needs to change. One of the most important success factors of any modern nation is the continuity and security of doing business in it. That is why industries need to work together with the governments to keep up with the technological evolution so that threats can be assessed and mitigated holistically. Air superiority might soon become less important than Cyber superiority.
//Pasi
