That causes hack backs – extinction.

Currently, the Internet has only seen cyber skirmishes. State actors like North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and the United States have digitized corporate and governmental espionage, which has a long and rich history. Meanwhile, criminal gangs make the occasional headline with thefts from ATMs and cryptocurrency accounts. Fortunately, there has been very little weaponized use of cybersecurity technology. The most recent example is the American government’s disabling the Iranian military computer network in mid-2019 in retaliation for the Iranians downing a U.S. drone. Unfortunately, the federal government, its contractors, nor private enterprises have as yet developed a sense of MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction. MAD was the unofficial policy — more an understanding, really — between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. What each knew at the time was that if either side uses nuclear weapons against the other, it could mean the end of the world. Fortunately, nations have held back from using the Internet to shut down the power grids of the United States, or bring airliners crashing to the ground, or launch American missiles against itself. Corporations, however, have not yet developed that level of cyber-awareness about the possible repercussions of hack backs. Unfortunately, in the United States, combatants are fighting purely defensive pitched battles that frustrate them greatly and sometimes cost them dearly. Nevertheless, as cybersecurity tools of mass destruction arrive on the scene, those charged with defending the nation need to closely guarded and wield those weapons with the greatest wisdom and restraint to avoid MAD. Providing the right for anyone to hack back may lead to short-term satisfaction, but long-term devastation in the virtual and real worlds.