Esther Dyson

The first day of the EastWest Institute's first Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit closed today with a panel of legal, industry and government experts offering initial recommendations to ensure security and innovation online. The panel focused on international legal coordination, private-public partnerships and educations as essential components of security, but warned against draconian measures that stifle speech and innovation.

"Peace and security of cyberspace should be in the process of international law," said Judge Stein Schjølberg, former Chairman of the High-Level Experts Group at the International Telecommunication Union, arguing for the use of existing legal procedures to develop global cyber governance structures.

Others argued for market incentives to encourage the private sector, which owns and operates most of the world's digital infrastructure, to tackle minor crimes. "The government should assign liability or responsibility for fixing the problem to the Internet service providers," said Esther Dyson, an Active Angel Investor and former Founding Chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. "They have the resources and the direct connection with consumers."

Dyson argued that such a delegation of responsibility would free government resources to deal with more substantial threats. "The problem I want to deal with is the underbrush of cybersecurity," she said, adding: "It's very easy for the serious criminals to hide among the petty criminals."

Addison Fischer, Chairman of the Planet Heritage Foundation and a long-time high-tech entrepreneur, made a similar call for market mechanisms, arguing for the establishment of insurance against cyber attacks. “I would like to have a secure platform. I would like my personal computer to be secure.  I would pay a premium for it,” he said.

But government should continue to play a leading role, argued Bruce Schneier, Chief Security Officer at BT. "The key here is who gets to make the rules," he said. "We are increasingly seeing social norms set by businesses for profit margins."

Schneier also argued for greater awareness about technology led by young people. "I think the kids need to educate us," he said. "The way the kids are doing it is the right way. We're doing it the wrong way."

Speakers emphasized the need to balance such measures with civil liberties. "We need to be really careful to make sure that people don't use some of the things I'm talking about as a repression of speech," said Dyson.

Henning Wegener, Chairman of the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Information Security of the  World Federation of Scientists, argued for international law to protect human rights online from both public and private intrusion. "When government censorship is unlimited in control, then we not only have to intervene, but we have also to intervene in the industry involvement," he said.

But despite the dangers, the approach to cybersecurity must be cautious and measured, suggested Dyson, arguing the much of cyberspace is still secure and functional. "Go on the internet and check it out," she said. "It's not a cesspool everywhere."