Don’t Panic. It’s Only the Internet.

Source: Michael Scott Moore, Miller-McCune.

The U.S. established a new military brain center in Maryland this year called Cyber Command, the geek soldier’s answer to Central Command, where American military hackers work to protect military networks from enemy hackers abroad. Along with this year’s “cybersecurity bill” in Congress, the command center belongs to a larger effort to protect the nation from “cyberwar”.

There’s a broad, hazy difference between American and European philosophy on the cyber threat. Recommendations in Europe — from The Economist, the U.N. and Russia — involve nuclear-style arms treaties to manage the cyber-arms race now under way. These agreements would set rules for international response to cyber-attacks and authorize sanctions against nations that engage in them. But a treaty would be easy to cheat on and tough to enforce; a hacker who can set a logic bomb can also cover his tracks.

The Economist and the U.N. both argue that the world needs ground rules because the shape of future cyberweapons is so hard to predict. Both want commitments from all governments not to launch attacks or harbor cyberterrorists — commitments that again would need more domestic surveillance and more mutual oversight. The New York Times pointed out last year that such treaties could also provide cover for totalitarian regimes that want to censor their own citizens.