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Cybersecurity and the Law: What to Expect in 2012 January 2012 - Our economic activities, our social lives, and even our physical safety increasingly depend on computers and other devices linked together through the Internet. Protecting those systems and the information they contain has thus become a national imperative. As President Obama stated near the outset of his Administration, "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity." [1] In the past decade, an increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity industry has grown up to help companies, individuals, and government agencies contend with the growing array of threats posed by cyber attackers and cyber thieves. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study puts spending on cybersecurity in the United States at $30 billion a year and growing at 10-15% per year. [2] The legal system has been slower to respond. But both lawmakers and law enforcers - at the federal and state levels - have begun to hear the alarms, and this coming year may well see major developments in the legal regime governing cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has grabbed the top spot on the federal government's national security agenda, both in the Executive Branch and on Capitol Hill. Not since the 9/11 terrorist attacks made combating Al Qaeda and its allies the number one national security goal has a single issue so galvanized leaders of both parties and in both Congress and the Administration. This extensive, thoughtful article explores a number of key factors bearing on cybersecurity in the new year, including:
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