April 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Overclassification stifles the cybersecurity...
Thanks to all of you who have sent your comments about Tate Watkins and my new cybersecurity paper. It’s been getting a good reception. James Fallows of The Atlantic, for example, noted yesterday that the paper “represents a significant libertarian-right voice of concern about this latest expansion of the permanent national-security surveillance state,” and that while we...
Apr 27th
Me on TLF: Threat Inflation in Cybersecurity... →
Apr 26th
4 notes
1 tag
Threat Inflation in Cybersecurity Policy
Today my colleague Tate Watkins and I are releasing a new working paper on cybersecurity policy. Please excuse my patently sleep-deprived mug while I describe it here: Over the past few years there has been a steady drumbeat of alarmist rhetoric coming out of Washington about potential catastrophic cybersecurity threats. For example, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last year,...
Apr 26th
1 tag
Revisiting the Bitcoin bubble
Here is a chart of the Bitcoin-dollar exchange rate for the past six months. The arrow notes the date my column on the virtual currency was published in TIME.com. The day after that piece was published, the Bitcoin exchange rate reached an all time high at $1.19. Yesterday, just over a week later, it was pushing $2. A wiser fella than myself once said, correlation is not causation, and no...
Apr 25th
Me on TLF: Bitcoin, intermediaries, and... →
Apr 20th
1 note
1 tag
Bitcoin, intermediaries, and information control
I’m gratified that my recent writing on the Bitcoin virtual currency project has stirred much conversation and I thought I’d take a moment to continue that conversation. Tim Lee has written two posts critiquing the viability of Bitcoin from the supply and demand side. Dan Rothschild has responded in part. Tyler Cower also weighed in. To address Tim I’ll simply say this: Do I...
Apr 20th
1 tag
Bitcoin: Imagine a net without intermediaries
Yesterday the FBI effectively shut down three of the largest gambling sites online and indicted their executives. From a tech policy perspective, these events highlight how central intermediary control is to the regulation of the internet. Department of Justice lawyers were able to take down the sites using the same tools we’ve seen DHS use against alleged pirate and child porn sites: they...
Apr 16th