Curbing the Market for Cyber Weapons
The United States and its international partners are permitting an unregulated, global market for cyber weapons to flourish. Weaponized zero-day ("Oday") exploits to attack the control systems for the power grid and other critical infrastructure components are on sale to criminals, terrorists, and rogue nations. Policymakers have begun to recognize the imperative to curb this market. There is no consensus, however, on the measures needed to do so. We propose three initial steps to begin curbing the market for weaponized Oday exploits. First, the United States should incentivize developers of critical infrastructure industrial control systems and applications layer software to minimize security flaws in their products. The Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act provides an especially promising means to strengthen these incentives and should be amended to authorize such software developers to apply for liability coverage under the Act. Second, through the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, the United States and its international partners should establish uniform controls of dangerous Oday exploit sales targeting critical infrastructure. Third, the United States should amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to strengthen its ability to prosecute researchers located both domestically and abroad who recklessly sell dangerous exploits targeting critical infrastructure to America’s adversaries.
An Economic Alternative to Improve Cybersecurity of E-government and Smart Cities
While the rapid progress in smart city technologies are changing cities and the lifestyle of the people, there are increasingly enormous challenges in terms of the safety and security of smart cities. The potential vulnerabilities of e-government products and imminent attacks on smart city infrastructure and services will have catastrophic consequences on the governments and can cause substantial economic and noneconomic losses, even chaos, to the cities and their residents. This paper aims to explore alternative economic solutions ranging from incentive mechanisms to market-based solutions to motivate smart city product vendors, governments, and vulnerability researchers and finders to improve the cybersecurity of smart cities.
Social Health Insurance Reforms—Mid-Term Experiences of Poland and Russia
As a result of transition process to market economy, Poland and Russia have come a long way from a centrally planned budget for social security to an insurance-type model in the social sphere. After more than two decades of reforms, it seems essential to compare and evaluate the policy solutions introduced in terms of the reform goals achieved and exposure to current challenges. The paper presents an analysis and comparison of social health insurance reforms conducted in Poland and Russia since the beginning of the 1990s. Moreover, the current problems of and future challenges for health care financing systems are identified. The varied experiences of Poland and Russia over more than 20 years show mid-term lessons which could be useful to other countries, especially those that face socio-economic transformation, in their choice of strategy and the practice of similar reforms.